- U.S. gasoline prices rose 27 cents to $3.25 per gallon.
- Increase followed oil supply disruptions during Iran conflict.
- Trump said rising fuel prices not a major concern.
- White House considering measures to mitigate energy market impact.
The national gasoline average shot up 27 cents over a week to 3. 25 per gallon of gasoline, destroying over a year of price falls that the president had trumpeted as one of the economic victories.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump told Reuters in an exclusive interview that he was more than unconcerned about the increasing gase prices in the United States caused by the ever growing Iran conflict, yet the military operation against Tehran was his number one priority, even as the nationwide average price of a gallon of gasoline rose to its highest point in more than a year.
The statements are a major turn into a more pessimistic atmosphere of a president who has made low gas prices a major bragging point, as he had preceded his State of the Union speech with a boast of a decline in gas prices last month and at a Texas energy rally held literally hours before the US made its airstrikes on Iran last Saturday.
When questioned specifically on the issue of increased prices at the pump, Trump waved off the issue. "They'll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline price go up a little bit", but this is much more than having gasoline price increased by some little way.
Oil Up 16 per cent, Gas at $3.25: The Figures behind Trump, It is not very much.
The figures speak a different language. The war, which started on Saturday, has seen the world oil prices increase 16 percent, the extending conflict has crippled the Middle East oil supplies, and in essence, stopped all traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US has risen by a whooping 27 cents in one week to 3.25, according to AAA, a fuel monitoring agency based in the US. That has the current average up 15 cents compared to where it was a year ago, swamping over a year of price falls which Trump had touted as one of his signature economic gains. Trump however informed Reuters that its costs have not gone up very high.
Trump has indicated a four-five weeks plan to be used by the military campaign against Tehran, yet political and military analysts have challenged it, since the US government has not defined the end objective even at the time when the confrontation continues to spread to the region and other parts of the world.
There is noBackup, No Good Option: The White House Energy Momentum.
Trump was asked whether he would deem it appropriate to release oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to soften the impact to the consumer, but he claimed that he had no plans of do so. He said that he was not looking in the direction of broad emergency steps. He also stated that he was confident that the Strait of Hormuz, the most important shipping route off the coast of Iran through which about a fifth of the global oil supply passes every day, would be open, since the Iranian navy according to him was at the bottom of the sea.
In fact the strait has practically been sealed to commercial traffic since the hostilities broke out last Saturday. The move to insure tankers passing through the war zone has been rejected by insurance companies, and this has brought to a near standstill a channel that serves Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Nevertheless, the White House is betting that the war and the ensuing gasoline price would only be temporary.
Two of those sources who agreed to remain anonymous in order to outline internal discussions told Trump aides that the initial sticker shock in fuel markets was not as epic as many feared and that they needed to wait. The advisers further warned that the any action cannot be made to tremble markets and would be counterproductive in a way that would end up making the situation worse.
This week Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that the administration was implementing a set of actions to counter the increasing oil prices, but the only tangible plan that has been sent out to date is risk insurance to US oil tankers, and the threat of possible naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz. Three energy executive officers have informed Reuters that the White House has limited good alternatives to depreciate energy costs rapido.
Midterm Liability: To What extent Can Republicans Get the Pain at the Pump?
The dismissive attitude of the White House has been widely repeated among the Congressional Republican leaders. The party plans to make its November midterm election strategy based on economic accomplishments, and House Speaker Mike Johnson swept the issue of increasing gas prices aside. High prices are also a potential bigger liability, warning political analysts, and already frustrated by decades of high living costs, Republicans may face a backlash at the ballot box in case the Iran war is converted into years of misery at the pump.
The political aspect is intensified by the circumstances that led to the occurrence of the war. By the time Trump gave his State of the Union speech in late February, the national gasoline average had been reduced to 2.92 dollars per gallon - lower than it had been in January 2025 on his inauguration. He cited that downfall as evidence of his economic custodianship.
The same cushion has since been whittled away and even more during the course of just one week of war, leaving Trump with the peculiar task of having to justify a trade-off that he argumentatively opposed, which is increased cost in place of a military campaign. The question the White House is asking is does the four-to-five weeks timeline of Trump hold, or is the war, as more and more are indicating, not around and without clear conclusion, and there is no apparent strategy to provide the Americans with some relief at the pump.
