CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Tuesday fact-checked President Donald Trump's assertion that Ukraine is responsible for high diesel prices, telling viewers that recent fuel cost increases stem from Iran. Diesel sits at the center of the American supply chain — it powers freight trucks, trains, and farm machinery — making fuel costs a direct input in the price of producing and moving goods.

"[H]e blamed Ukraine for high diesel prices," Keilar said, citing a press conference Trump held earlier in the day. "Of course, we do know that those high diesel prices of late, those high gas prices of late have been from Iran." Watch the segment.

At the press conference, Trump placed the blame for rising prices entirely on Ukraine — a country fighting for its survival following Russia's full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022 — and called on Ukrainian leaders to surrender territory that Russia has seized in recent years.

"… Ukraine has to want to settle this war. Zelensky has to want to settle this war. And if he doesn't, I think it's going to be a very bad thing," Trump told reporters. "Look, we have given tremendous amounts to Ukraine. We've got nothing back other than high diesel. We have given probably possibly more money to Ukraine than almost anybody over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars. We've gotten nothing back. And the American taxpayers are tired of it."

Keilar's on-air correction came as reporting has been filled with evidence that global and U.S. diesel prices are being driven up by a bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz and other choke points throughout the Middle East — disruptions the report attributes to Trump's war with Iran. The strait, the narrow passage linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world's most important transit routes for oil, a status that has long made it a focal point whenever conflict flares in the region.

The price surge appears to have become a political concern for the administration. On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced an $8 billion bailout for farms struggling under fast-rising diesel prices that the report links to the war with Iran. Experts cited in the article note that basic math shows the payment — characterized as a "bribe" aimed at angry farmers in the run-up to the midterms — will do little to alleviate their plight.

Fox News has reported that the diesel situation has forced a wave of transportation companies into bankruptcy, while farmers in red states have increasingly turned against Trump. One Kansas cattle rancher who spoke with the Washington Examiner appeared to acknowledge Trump's role in the higher costs, saying he "changed the whole dynamics of everything."

"You know, people can't afford to give as much for the cattle now because they're trying to afford the trucking to get them to their final destinations," the rancher said.

When Trump is not blaming Ukraine for the price problem, the article notes, he has sought to blame Democrats. It adds that 67 percent of Americans are now aware of the source of the problem — one it says lies with the White House.