Trump didn't build up ****....this is from Forbes magazine:
Through
his spokesperson, President Trump claimed:
“So after 50 years of being virtually empty, I built up our oil reserves during my administration, and low energy prices, to 100% full. It’s called the Strategic National Reserves, and it hasn’t been full for many decades. In fact, it’s been mostly empty.”
There’s just nothing about that statement that is true. As you can see in the graphic below, the SPR levels have never fallen below 500,000 thousand (i.e., 500 million) barrels of crude oil since the 1980s.
SPR levels 1982-2022
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
In fact, the highest level ever for the SPR was in 2010, when Barack Obama was president. Further, there was actually a net decline in the SPR when President Trump was in office. When he took office in January 2017, the SPR contained 695 million barrels. When he left office four years later, the SPR contained 638 million barrels. So not only is the claim of filling it untrue, but the level of the SPR actually declined while President Trump was in office.
One thing President Trump did propose was to top off the SPR when the Covid-19 pandemic was crushing oil demand. In March 2020 President Trump
directed the Department of Energy to “fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to its maximum capacity by purchasing 77 million barrels of American-made crude oil.”
That directive may be the source of President Trump’s confusion on the issue. However, 1). The directive was never carried out; and 2). The SPR was already within 13% of its highest-ever level when that directive was issued. So it’s not as if the SPR was empty at the time.
I feel sorry for you guys who believe everything that the twice impeached ex president says