The affordability crisis President Trump doesn’t believe is a real thing has gotten worse.
U.S. drivers are now paying an average of $4 a gallon at the pump, according to the latest figures from the American Automobile Association. Prices haven’t been this high since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Trump’s war in the Middle East has dealt a blow to the global gas market, as Iran chokes out oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one-fifth of the world’s supply flows.
As of Monday, the national retail average price sat at $4.018 a gallon, up $1 since the war started on Feb. 28. A gallon was $2.98 the day before the bombs first fell, marking a leap of around 35 percent.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that for the first time since 2022, U.S. crude oil prices settled above $100 a barrel, while diesel prices have surged to $5.40 a gallon.
Speaking to The New York Times, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said, “We have this obsession with gas prices because they dictate a lot of ‘Can we drive? Can we do things we enjoy?’ And now some of that is at risk.”
He continued, “As we get to a month of increases and prices are much higher… the amount of pressure on Americans’ budgets and their spending is going to ramp up.”
Trump has consistently claimed that his presidency will ultimately be a good thing for Americans’ wallets and scoffed at concerns about his war in Iran damaging the economy, insisting that any fallout will be short-lived. He previously dismissed affordability concerns as nothing more than a Democratic “hoax,” even as his top aides have reportedly scrambled to get him to change his messaging ahead of November’s midterms.
During his State of the Union speech just days before he ordered attacks on Iran, Trump claimed that gas was “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states and in some places, $1.99 a gallon,” The Guardian reports.
Just days before, he boasted that he had “fixed” the affordability crisis in an interview with NBC ahead of the Super Bowl.
“The one thing that they don’t say anymore is ‘affordability,’ because I fixed the problem that they created,” he said at the time.
Despite his confidence, a Pew Research Center poll revealed at the time that 66 percent of people were “very concerned” about the price of food and consumer goods.
Gas prices are a constant headache for presidents and often are beyond their control. Not in this case.
Speaking to the Times, former senior adviser in the Department of Energy Kate Gordon said: “Usually, a hurricane hits the Gulf [of Mexico] and gas prices go up, and then whoever’s in power gets blamed for it.” In this case, Trump is “going to get blamed anyway because he’s in power, but also he made the decision to go to war in Iran.”
Among the hardest-hit are Californians, where, as of Tuesday, the AAA price was $5.89.
The state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has already defaulted to trolling, posting on X on Sunday a Republican placard ostensibly from the 2024 presidential election, saying “Trump Low Prices. Kamala High Prices,” along with the caption “this aged well!”
There is a broad consensus that affordability will be a key issue come the fall, but some Republicans have now adopted a policy of asking Americans to ignore gas prices amid Trump’s war.
Speaking to News Nation, Republican Rep. Buddy Carter said, “What we’re paying at the gas pump is a small price to pay in order to save millions of lives in the future.
“This is a painful experience at the pump right now, but that is going to stabilize.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed: “When Operation Epic Fury is complete, gas prices will plummet back to the multi-year lows American drivers enjoyed before these short-term disruptions.”
“President Trump remains committed to fully unleashing American energy dominance, lowering costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families,” she added.
