GASSED UP

Trump Hit With Embarrassing Election Day First

Gas prices continue to haunt the president as Americans head to the polls.

President Donald Trump hit an embarrassing new milestone as Americans headed to the polls on Election Day.

The national average gas price hit $4.12 a gallon and $6.28 a gallon for diesel early Tuesday morning, according to data from fuel price tracker GasBuddy, marking the highest prices ever recorded on any Election Day in U.S. history.

Tuesday’s gas prices also broke the record set on Election Day in 2022, when the same figure averaged $3.80 a gallon in the week before the polls, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed.

Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, said the Tuesday numbers set a “new Election Day record.”

De Haan acknowledged, however, that the $4.12 average gas price isn’t an all-time high overall when adjusted for inflation. Summer 2008 still holds that record, when gas prices were roughly $6 in today’s dollars.

“Overall, gas prices, though nominally high, were not near inflation-adjusted records, and during the summer, Americans are more resistant/resilient to high prices given the opportunities of the season,” he said in an X post.

But that doesn’t mean gas prices aren’t top of mind for Americans. Several polls have shown that the issue voters care most about heading into the midterms is the economy.

In a Gallup poll, 50 percent of voters rated the economy as an “extremely important” issue. In another survey conducted by AP-NORC, 85 percent of voters ranked the economy as their top issue and 84 percent said the cost of living was their second-biggest concern.

NBC News has dubbed the 2026 midterms as the “the gas price election” after its poll found that 73 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation and the sky-high cost of living. About two-thirds of Americans said soaring gas prices were a serious problem.

“Prices have never been this high (on average) for gasoline and diesel this late in the year,” De Haan previously told NBC. “So that may be influential as Americans head to the polls.”

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised voters that gas prices would come down when the war with Iran that he started in February finally comes to an end.

“By the way, when that war ends, you’re gonna see gasoline coming down,” he said at an Iowa rally on Sunday.

But Trump doesn’t seem eager to end the war he started with Iran. Insiders earlier leaked to The Wall Street Journal and MS NOW that the president was weighing a potential new salvo in his war, which could come as soon as November 4—just a day after the midterms.

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The Trump administration has told Gulf allies to prepare for a short but intense round of strikes on Iran, three senior Gulf Arab officials said to MS NOW.

“We do not comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist. President Trump keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” a White House official told the outlet.

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