Trump touted falling gas prices but now says ‘we make a lot of money’ as they go up
WASHINGTON — Anyone who has listened to President Donald Trump’s speeches has heard him say it again and again: Gas prices are falling under his watch, making life more affordable.
The day before launching war against Iran, he appeared in Corpus Christi, Texas, and declared that “right here” the price of gasoline had fallen below $2.30 a gallon.
“I just left Iowa two weeks ago: $1.99. And then I passed another one: $1.85. It’s happening. It’s happening,” he added.
On Thursday, Trump’s message changed.
He posted on social media that when oil prices rise, as they are now, “we make a lot of money” from U.S. energy dominance.
“The United States is by far the largest oil producer in the world, so when oil prices rise, we make a lot of money,” he wrote.
He did not say who he meant by “we”. Oil companies are profiting from rising prices triggered by the war in Iran, but millions of Americans are facing an unexpected burden at the pump.
A day after the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran began, the price of gasoline stood at $2.94 per gallon, according to GasBuddy. By Thursday, the price had climbed to $3.61, an increase of 23%.
One of Trump’s attacks on former President Joe Biden centered on the price of gas. A gallon of regular fuel cost $5 at one point during Biden’s term. It had fallen to $3.09 when Biden left office.
At a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the week before Christmas, Trump pointed to some of his supporters in the crowd as he touted lower gas prices.
“It cost my beautiful friends in North Carolina, it cost them about a third to get here than it would have cost under Sleepy Joe Biden,” he said.
In his Thursday message, Trump did not mention gas prices. Instead, he presented rising oil prices as a kind of American windfall. Taking the argument a step further, he writes that the war is worth it because it prevents Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, even without oil wealth now flowing to America.
He wrote that “it is far more interesting and important to me as president to prevent an evil empire, Iran, from possessing nuclear weapons and destroying the Middle East and, of course, the world. I will never let that happen! Thank you for your attention to this issue.”
Trump’s political rise is rooted in a populist connection with forgotten voters, not a plutocratic alliance with oil executives.
Until the war with Iran, he took the opportunity to remind ordinary Americans that gas prices were falling and they were saving money because of his policies.
As Trump approached his first full year in office in January, the White House issued a press release claiming that reducing gasoline prices generated real savings. Motorists are on track to spend $11 billion less on gasoline in 2026 compared to the previous year, with the average household saving hundreds of dollars per year, according to the release.
One of Trump’s favorite talking points was to highlight specific regions of the country where gas prices had fallen below $2 per gallon. Fact-checks showed Trump exaggerated price cuts, but he regularly cited gas prices as a measure of his administration’s success. And, indeed, prices nationwide had fallen more than 6 percent from the start of his new term until he entered the war.
In his State of the Union address last month, Trump likened cheaper energy to “a big new tax cut.”
“No one can believe when they see these kinds of numbers – especially on energy – when they see energy go down to numbers like that, they can’t believe it,” he said.
At the White House, Trump advisers are closely monitoring public reaction to gas prices, with one official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. said in an interview. A recent NBC News poll showed that a majority of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict with Iran and believe he should not have taken military action against the country.
Voters “understand that the president is taking big, bold steps to eliminate a regime that has threatened our country and killed our people for many years,” the official said.
Still, Billy Jean Wright, a truck driver who attended Trump’s appearance at a packing plant Wednesday in Hebron, Ky., said she didn’t like the way the war was going.
“Gas prices are going up,” she said in an interview. “Our food industry is booming. Everything is increasing and we can’t survive here.”
The Trump administration is taking steps to bring prices down as soon as possible. As the midterm congressional elections approach, the president can ill afford to see voters in a bad mood as daily travel has become more expensive, in addition to shopping.
Trump has said he could end the war at any time, which could presumably stabilize oil prices and reduce gas prices from their current highs. Yet Iran is a wild card. The country’s new supreme leader said Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point for oil tankers, should be closed, potentially triggering an energy supply crisis.
