President Donald Trump made this declare Tuesday morning about gasoline costs: “If you notice, the price is not very high, relatively speaking. I mean, it’s lower than during the Biden administration.” Referring to the struggle with Iran, Trump additionally told reporters that the price of gas is “lower during a military conflict than it was during the Biden administration.”
It’s true that the AAA national average gas price on each Monday and Tuesday, $4.16 per gallon, is decrease than the peak nationwide common gas price through the Biden administration, $5.02 per gallon in June 2022 – which occurred through the international spike that adopted Russia’s full-scale army invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But the present $4.16 per gallon nationwide common is considerably increased than the nationwide common when Biden left workplace in January 2025, which was $3.12 per gallon. And it’s increased than the nationwide common was on 1,334 of Biden’s 1,460 full days as president, figures supplied by AAA present.
In different phrases, the nationwide common gas price is increased now than it was throughout 91% of Biden’s time period.
It’s additionally increased now than it was each single day of Biden’s final 29-and-a-half months in workplace. The final time beneath Biden that it was increased than it’s right this moment was August 3, 2022, in keeping with AAA, when it was a smidgen increased in the event you go to a number of decimal locations.
What constitutes “not very high” is subjective, although it’s a certainty that many Americans disagree with the president’s evaluation. The present nationwide common is way increased than the common a yr in the past right this moment, when it was $3.12 per gallon, and the common when Trump launched the struggle with Iran in late February, $2.98 per gallon. However, it has come down from a month in the past, when it was $4.53 per gallon, and from per week in the past, when it was $4.29 per gallon.
Over and over through the Iran struggle, Trump has tried to deflect considerations about present gas costs by telling a narrative in regards to the gas costs he claims he noticed when he visited Iowa early this yr. He advised it once more thrice on Friday – at an event in Wisconsin, in an interview, and in comments to reporters.
“I was in Iowa, another place I like a lot, and it was just before we started the excursion to Iran. And we passed gas stations; it was $1.85 a gallon. And we’re going to get them down to those numbers again very quickly,” he mentioned on the occasion.
“I was in Iowa, and for a gallon of gasoline, it was at $1.85. And that was three-and-a-half months ago,” he advised reporters.
The Iowa journey Trump was speaking about happened in late January, greater than 4 months in the past. More importantly, the Iowa common for normal gas that day was $2.57 per gallon, in keeping with AAA – and the agency GasBuddy discovered simply 4 stations within the state promoting that day for beneath $2 per gallon ($1.97, to be particular, not $1.85) out of two,036 stations the agency was monitoring there. A NCS reporter noticed that the station proper outdoors the venue the place Trump spoke that day was at $2.69 per gallon.
It’s potential Trump was referring to the price of E85, an ethanol-gasoline mix that’s bought in a minority of gas stations and might solely be utilized in a small percentage of autos which might be appropriate with it; the mix was promoting for round $1.85 per gallon in Iowa on the time of his go to. But as when he advised the story about Iowa gas costs on previous occasions, he provided no indication in these feedback that he was speaking a few area of interest product.