President Donald Trump is suddenly throwing out new numbers after he was brutally fact-checked on gas prices by an Iowan during his trip to the Hawkeye State.
Trump, 79, now insists that he was corrected by two farmers during his visit to the state this week who conveniently yelled out that gas was actually cheaper than what he claimed in a speech.
“I was in Iowa, and they had $1.85, because I had it at $1.99 a gallon,” he said in his opening spiel of Thursday’s Cabinet meeting. “And I was corrected by two farmers that said, ‘I just bought my gasoline for $1.85.”
A CNN reporter traveling with the president in Iowa reported the exact opposite.
Instead, the network said that Trump’s boast that Iowa’s gas prices were $1.95 or $1.85 was met with a shout from the crowd: “No, $2.63!”
CNN noted that the gas station just outside the venue in the Des Moines suburb of Clive was selling gas for $2.69 per gallon on Tuesday, when Trump was there.
The average gallon of gas in Iowa cost $2.50 as of Thursday, according to AAA.
These facts have not stopped Trump from repeatedly touting gas prices under $2, even though the number of stations actually offering such a deal is few and far between. An official at GasBuddy told CNN just four stations in Iowa were selling gas for less than $2 as of Tuesday.
The president told his Cabinet that gas is “less than $2 in many areas, $2.30 a gallon, average.”
In reality, AAA reports that the nationwide average is $2.87 a gallon. Oklahoma has the lowest cost per gallon at $2.40.
Trump has also claimed that average gas prices were much higher than reality in the final year of former President Joe Biden’s presidency—something he said again during his Cabinet meeting.
“Gasoline has plunged to, uh,” he began, losing his train of thought.
He continued, referening what he claimed were prices before he returned to office, “Think it’s over $4 a gallon, depending on where you are. In California, it’s $7 to $8 a gallon.”
The average price of a gallon of gas in California is now $4.27, down from $4.45 a year ago, according to AAA. The state, while the most expensive in the country by 16 cents (Hawaii has the second highest), has never had its average cost per gallon as high as $7 or $8, as the president claims.
Trump’s lies and exaggerations received no pushback from his table of grinning, nodding sycophants, including from Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Trump continued, “Specifically, if you look at oil and gas, we’ve never been anywhere even close. Chris, is that a correct segment?”
Wright responded: “That is correct, all-time records.”
