The Trump administration is obsessed with gas prices returning to $3 per gallon. Trouble is, key figures can’t seem to decide when that might happen.
President Donald Trump came out swinging on Monday, refuting a comment made by one of his cabinet members over the weekend. On Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that gas prices may not dip below $3 per gallon until 2027.
“I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong,” Trump told The Hill on Monday of Wright’s remarks. Rather, the president said that gas prices will drop “as soon” as the Iran war ends, though there’s no timeline for that.
While Wright also said that he expects gas prices to go down once there’s a resolution to the conflict, he said he didn’t when they would dip below that key $3 threshold. “That could happen later this year, that might not happen until next year, but prices have likely peaked and will start going down,” he said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union”.
While gas prices under $3 per gallon is “pretty tremendous” in inflation-adjusted terms, according to Wright, he’s confident it will happen again during Trump’s presidency. “We’ll get back there, for sure,” he said.
Trump famously campaigned on $2-per-gallon gas prices and seems intent on reassuring Americans that relief is on the way. But the Iran war has caused a spike in energy prices because of blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted last week that gas prices could, at the very least, fall below $4 per gallon soon. “I’m optimistic that during the summer we will see gas with a three in front of it, sooner rather than later,” he told reporters at a briefing, as Reuters reported.
GAS PRICES REMAIN HIGH
Bessent’s prediction is the most achievable given where gas prices are now.
The average price of an unleaded gallon of gasoline is now averaging $4.04 nationwide, according to AAA, down slightly from a peak of $4.16 earlier this month. Even so, drivers are paying an average of $1.23 more per gallon than even a few months ago when the nationwide average hit a nearly five-year low of $2.81 in early January, AAA figures show. That works out to about $20 extra for a sedan driver each time they fill up their tank.
Drivers are currently feeling the brunt of the pain caused by the shock in energy prices, as airlines have—for now—mostly focused on reducing the number of low-capacity flights and have jacked up bag fees in recent weeks.
The situation is far more dire in Europe, where closure of the Strait of Hormuz threatens supply shortages. Even in the U.S., however, until there’s a resolution, higher energy prices could dampen the all-important summer travel season, which kicks off with the Memorial Day weekend less than five weeks away.
And price relief may not come as quickly to air travelers, as one airline industry analyst recently cautioned.
“Presuming there is a lasting ceasefire—or better yet, peace agreement—it will take a few months for normal levels of jet fuel production and delivery to resume,” Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, recently told The Associated Press.