Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s big boast about gas prices is coming back to bite him.
Bessent promised in July that “inflation is going to come back down” and that gas prices would “maybe” return to $3 by Labor Day. Now that the holiday has arrived, MS NOW has the receipts that prove Bessent’s prediction was way off.
The network aired the months-old clip of Bessent on Monday before cutting back to host Peter Alexander, who said with a smirk, “It is Labor Day.”
“Gas prices, as you are well aware, are nowhere closer to $3 than they were a month ago,” he continued. “Right now, the national average is $4.15 per gallon—that’s not three bucks. It’s way higher than prior to the Iran war, when they were sitting below $3 a gallon.”
AAA reports that the average gallon of gas in the United States was $3.83 on July 2, the day Bessent made his claim in an interview with CBS News. Instead of gas decreasing by at least 83 cents, as Bessent promised, the average gallon has become 32 cents more expensive since then.
At $4.15 a gallon, AAA reports the price is a record high for Labor Day. The previous high of $3.83 per gallon was reached in 2012, when tensions in the Middle East also disrupted supply.
Experts tell CNN that gas prices could climb even higher if the wars in Iran and Ukraine continue to roil global energy markets. Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, told MS NOW that even more expensive months are on the way.
“We’ll probably see our most expensive September, October and November, until something shifts with these geopolitical tensions,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance was confronted with Bessent’s failed promise during a press briefing this week. He pointed out that Bessent hedged his prediction by saying “maybe” by Labor Day, which offers little solace to Americans who are grappling with higher prices in nearly every facet of their everyday lives.
MS NOW highlighted AAA figures that show domestic flights are up 20 percent from this time last year, while hotels are nine percent more expensive.
