Gas prices hit $3.32 per gallon on Friday, the highest point since September 2024, as the Iran war boosts energy costs and threatens to undermine one of President Trump’s favorite economic talking points.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is up 34 cents since the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran started last Saturday, according to data from the AAA motor club.
Americans are starting to see pain at the pump as Iran chokes off the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for oil tankers, and the Middle East conflict spirals into the oil-rich Gulf states.
U.S. crude oil reached $90 per barrel on Friday as Mr. Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Iran, a sign he’s not open to negotiations and the conflict will endure.
Mr. Trump likes to boast about how gas prices fell during his second term from the sky-high levels they reached during the Biden administration, including an all-time high national average of $5.016 in June 2022.
“Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor — it was quite honestly a disaster — is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states,” Mr. Trump said in his State of the Union Address last month. “And in some places, $1.99 a gallon. And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.”
The president told Reuters on Thursday he’s not sweating the sudden increase following his decision to strike Iran.
“They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit,” he said.
AAA said gas prices tend to go up as spring approaches, though the recent spike drew parallels to other wars.
“The last time the national average made a similar weekly jump was back in March of 2022 during the start of the Russia/Ukraine conflict,” the club said in a Thursday blog post.
