Trump Considers Move That Could Change Your Summer Plans

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning a pause in the federal 18-cent gas tax to bring pump prices under control.

CBS News reported on Monday that Trump wanted to pause the federal gas tax as the national average price per gallon has risen to $4.52, with states like California, where gas prices average around $6.15 per gallon, driving the average higher. Most have attributed that dramatic spike in prices to the ongoing war with Iran, and Trump has predicted that prices would return to normal levels, if not lower, before the end of the year.

“I think it’s a great idea,” the president said in a phone interview with CBS’s Nancy Cordes. “Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.”

Cordes said that she also asked whether the Trump administration was considering a bailout for the airline industry as fuel costs continue to rise — and the president did not appear to think that was necessary.

“In our interview, Trump did not embrace the idea of a bailout for US air carriers as they contend with jet fuel costs that have doubled since the start of the war. A bailout proposal ‘hasn’t really been presented,’ he said. ‘The airlines are doing not badly,'” Cordes posted.

Trump also made it clear that the United States was not closer to a deal with Iran to end the war and bring down the gas prices that way, telling Cordes that the Iranian regime’s latest offer was “a bad proposal, a stupid proposal, actually … done by people that have no clue as to the danger they’re in. Very stupid proposal. Badly written, badly delivered.”

Suspending the gas tax — which is 18.4 cents per gallon for regular and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel — cannot be done by executive order, however, and would require Congress to act.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said that he was ready to move on that, however, and posted on X Monday, “I’m introducing legislation today to suspend the gas tax.”

When faced with a similar situation in the spring of 2022, former President Joe Biden opted instead to drain resources from the strategic oil reserves — to the tune of about 200 million barrels — dropping the reserves to their lowest levels since the mid-1980s.