Since launching the war with Iran nearly eight months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump has struggled to quell soaring energy costs, undermining Republicans’ attempt to keep control of Congress in the midterm elections next week.
Low gas prices were a key campaign pledge during Trump’s second presidential run. But the energy crisis spawned by the war has left him grasping for solutions and promising that things will get better.
The cost of crude oil—the main ingredient in gasoline as well as diesel—has been volatile as markets and consumers feel whiplash about uncertainty of the war’s future. All the while, households are feeling more strain, with cost-of-living concerns at the top of many voters’ minds going into Election Day on Nov. 3.
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As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.29, up from $2.98 before the war. Diesel surpassed $6 last month—a record—and now sits at an average of $6.35 a gallon, up from $3.76 in February.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that more expensive fuel is a small price to pay for the war, which he describes as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He’s also continued to blame his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for the country’s economic problems. And the president has tried to frame the world’s oil squeeze as good news for U.S. production.
“We’re making a freaking fortune,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Georgia over the weekend.
