With Americans increasingly incensed over the steadily climbing cost of refueling their vehicles, the US Energy secretary says he’s “open to all ideas” to bring down the price at the pump, to include suspending the federal gas tax.
This is bad, right? pic.twitter.com/Sw3UGcW31q
— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) May 11, 2026
“All measures that can be taken to lower the price of at the pump and lower the prices for Americans, this administration is in support of,” Chris Wright told Meet the Press on Sunday. “We’re releasing oil from our strategic petroleum reserves and getting 30 other nations to do that in coordination with us…We revised the EPA regulations on summer gasoline blend to make it easier for American refineries to produce more gasoline.”
Suspending the tax may only trigger more resentment about the administration’s war of choice: Once they learn the tax only accounts for 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.3 cents for diesel, Americans may view the limp gesture as merely adding insult to injury. In a recent poll, 81% of respondents said gas prices are straining their household finances. It’s a bipartisan feeling: 79% of Republicans felt that way. With the midterms now less than six months away, the political impact could be significant — 81% of independents say Trump is to blame to some extent.
Americans expressing their frustration with gas prices pic.twitter.com/Lm6ofNS9qf
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) May 9, 2026
The administration has been flailing in its messaging on gas prices. In mid-March — two weeks after Trump teamed up with Israel to launch a war on Iran — Wright told Meet the Press that Americans could expect “a few more weeks” of elevated prices, with a “very good chance” they would drop under $3 by summer. In mid-April, Wright told CNN that gas may not be below $3 “until next year.” Around the same time, however, Trump told Maria Bartiromo that “gasoline is coming down very soon and very big.” Now, 10 weeks into the war, and with summer just around the bend, the national average gas price is $4.52; diesel is $5.65. That’s about a 50% increase since the US-Israeli war on Iran began.
🚨 TRUMP: “Gas prices are WAY down” https://t.co/KGnWO4WnYz pic.twitter.com/uhL18QxZXd
— NoLimit (@NoLimitGains) May 10, 2026
Prudently refusing to dig himself any deeper on Sunday, Wright told Meet the Press, “I can’t make any predictions about oil prices or gasoline prices...when we start to get free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, energy prices will come down.” With Trump rejecting the latest counter-offer from Iran, there’s little reason to think that free flow will be happening anytime soon.
For most Americans, state fuel taxes are a bigger factor than the federal tax — particularly in those states where leftists dominate government. California’s gas tax is the worst, at 70.9 cents per gallon, followed by Illinois (66.4 cents) and Washington (59 cents).
Some states have reduced or suspended their fuel taxes to buffer their residents from that effect of the Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran. Last week, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun extended a suspension of the state sales tax on gas, and paused the gas tax too. Together, that cuts 59.3 cents per gallon from the pump price. In March, Georgia suspended its 33-cent tax, but that suspension ends on May 18, and the legislature is out of session. Utah trimmed its tax by 6 cents — but that relief doesn’t take effect until July 1. Earlier this month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed a federal tax suspension, but (shocker!) doesn’t want to do anything with her state’s 52.4-cent tax, which is the sixth-highest in the country.