Hatcher Promotes Economic Patience With Rising Fuel Prices At Trump Rally

Fifth Congressional District Republican Charlie Hatcher stood in front of thousands this weekend at President Donald Trump’s midterms rally. 

He had a tailored message for the crowd. 

“I know we are facing fierce economic headwinds. Just give it a little time. We'll get that taken care of,” Hatcher said inside Clarksville’s F&M Bank Arena. 

Hatcher’s promotion of patience was specifically related to what he accurately described as “record diesel prices.”  They have risen in large part due to the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, which Hatcher supports.

While the president initially promoted the war as a weeks-long military operation, it has continued for eight months. The conflict has resulted in the deaths and injuries of numerous U.S. service members.

“If we can get this war behind us and meet our objectives there — where they don't have a nuclear weapon that they can use against us, and also prevent them from having a stranglehold on the global oil economy — those are the objectives. Once they're met, we can get out of there,” Hatcher told reporters. “If that's done, President Trump would be the only president in history that's done that in the past 50 years. I think we'll have peace in the Middle East, and I think the economy will take off and everything will get better. It's contingent upon that.”

Americans are no stranger to politicians promoting Middle East wars in order to ensure Middle East peace, but on the heels of the U.S.’s longest war, most Americans disapprove of this new conflict.

“I think we can get there,” Hatcher said. “I think we're well on our way. We just need to hang on a little bit longer.”

Hatcher’s five-minute speech may have been the most important moment of the rally after Hatcher upset the then-Trump-endorsed congressman Andy Ogles during the primary, leaving Ogles to sit on the sideline of the rally while Hatcher took the stage. 

“I went through a brutal primary, and a primary is like siblings fighting, right? And when they get done with the fight, they realize they do love each other. That was my biggest takeaway from the primary,” Hatcher told rallygoers. “We cannot afford voter apathy, ladies and gentlemen, in this general election. It will get us beat. We do not want to go back to the failed Biden Democratic policies. People have short memories. They have amnesia. That needs to be the message.”

Just two weeks after his primary win, Hatcher publicly (albeit gently) questioned Trump’s move to import tariff-free foreign beef in an attempt to reduce beef prices for consumers, something that has caused public outcry from U.S. ranchers and farmers. Hatcher also quietly edited his campaign website to remove the phrase “Pro-Trump.” 

Hatcher, a Williamson County dairy farmer and former state agriculture secretary, now argues that the American beef market is “starting to stabilize.”

“The big concern is our beef cattle inventory. Our mama cows are the lowest they've been in 75 years,” Hatcher told reporters. “We got to build that back up, but farmers need a good price for their animals now with input costs, and that was one of the last bright spots of the ag industry was the beef cattle market. It took a little ding there, but it's coming back.”

Trump has taken several steps to reduce fuel prices, including an executive order for emergency tax relief on dyed diesel fuel, and entered into a diesel deal with Russia, a U.S. adversary, both of which Hatcher supports.

“I also like that President Trump is negotiating with Russia to try to import Russian diesel. I think that'll help maybe as much as anything,” Hatcher said. “So I think I like the fact that it's being addressed, and diesel is the lifeblood of our whole economy when it comes to farming, when it comes to transportation, when it comes to 18-wheelers, when it comes to food. So as those prices come down, so will [the] affordability issue will be addressed somewhat that way.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move a “birthday gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” that “gives Putin money, and he spends money only on this war. [To] kill us. Kill our children.”

When asked if the U.S.-Russia deal could undermine the U.S.-Ukraine alliance, Hatcher said he has faith in the Trump administration.

“I don't think they do anything that would jeopardize that,” Hatcher said.

“What do you think Ukrainians should think when they see this deal?” the Williamson Scene’s sister publication the Nashville Post asked.

“I think what they should think is we're trying to lower diesel prices in the U.S. and that's going to be critical for the American people and the affordability that we're trying to address,” he responded.

“Should that be at the cost of Ukrainian lives?” the Post asked. 

“I can't comment on that,” Hatcher said. “I don't know what effect it's going to have.”

Toward the end of the nearly four-hour rally, Trump was joined on the stage by Hatcher and fellow Republican congressional candidates Brent Taylor (9th Congressional District) and Johnny Garrett (6th Congressional District). Incumbent 7th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, who won the seat in a special election last year, cemented Trump’s support of the candidates whom he called a “tremendous group of warriors.”