In his February 24 State of the Union Speech, United States President Donald Trump claimed gas prices in America were much lower than they actually were. This was part of Trump’s effort to claim credit for an asserted vastly improved economy. Several days later, the war against Iran, which Trump started along with the Israel government, resulted in gas prices shooting up further.
The war-caused sustained gas price increase led to Trump changing his message. Come April 23, in response to a question posed at the Oval Office of the White House, Trump conceded that gas prices would remain high “for a little while” because of the war, adding that the higher cost would be worth it to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Trump reiterated this new message when talking to reporters on Friday on the White House south lawn.
House of Representatives Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), however, has continued to promote the low gas price line from the State of the Union speech. In a Thursday interview with host Joe Kernen at the CNBC show Squawk Box, Scalise offered as a primary reason why Republicans should keep a majority in the House after the November elections that, despite “a jump” in the gas price from the Iran War, the Republicans in DC have “delivered” a gas price is “in the threes.” This, Scalise argued is a big drop given that, “if you go back two years ago, we were paying almost six dollars a gallon for gasoline.” Kernen, in response, challenged this claim about gas prices two years earlier, noting that in April of 2024 the average gas price was at about $3.65 — a lower price than at the time of the interview.
As of the Tuesday following the interview, the average price of regular unleaded gas, reported by AAA, is $4.48, far surpassing the “threes” Scalise mentioned a few days earlier.
Instead of the gas price being the electoral asset for Republicans that Scalise claims, it is a liability. A Pew Research Center poll conducted March 23 through 29 found that 69 percent of surveyed individuals were very or extremely concerned about US military action against Iran causing higher gas and fuel prices. Indeed, this came in as the top concern arising from the Iran war, ahead of the other polled issues of the US sending in ground troops at 61 percent, large numbers of US casualties at 59 percent, terrorist attacks in the US at 56 percent, the war expanding outside the Middle East at 53 percent, and a shortage of weapons for the US military at 31 percent.
The American people are aware that gas prices are up, and they are placing much of the blame for this situation on the Iran War. It is a textbook “pocketbook issue” that can swing many votes. To address the concern of Americans regarding high gas prices, Scalise and other politicians in DC could, first, admit the reality of high gas prices, and, second, call for the immediate termination of the US war on Iran.
