With the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at $4.52, President Trump told reporters Monday that he supports a temporary suspension of the federal gas tax.
The tax, 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel fuel, generates more than $23 billion a year — money that goes to federal highway and public transit programs. Drivers wouldn’t be saving much compared to the $1.54-a-gallon increase in the national average price of gas since the start of the war with Iran — a roughly 52% rise, based on data from AAA.
“It’s a small percentage,” Trump said Monday, “but it’s still money.”
Trump’s comments come just days after the White House told Axios that a suspension was “not currently under consideration.”
It’s up to Congress: Suspending the tax would require an act of Congress, where lawmakers in both parties have expressed support for the idea as a way to address affordability concerns and voter anger ahead of the midterm elections.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri quickly announced that he is introducing legislation to suspend the tax. On the House side, Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Jeff Van Drew said they would introduce bills this week. “My bill would completely suspend the federal fuel taxes for 18 months, so people are no longer paying those extra taxes per gallon every time they fill up their tank,” Van Drew said in a statement.
Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mark Kelly of Arizona introduced their own bill, the Gas Prices Relief Act, in March. It would suspend the federal gas tax through October 1 and would require the Treasury Department to transfer money from its general fund to the Highway Trust Fund to offset any lost revenue. Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire introduced a House version of the bill. He responded to Trump’s comments in a post on X: “This should have happened months ago,” he wrote, calling for Congress to pass his bill this week.
Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania has proposed legislation to suspend the federal gas tax whenever prices rise above $4 a gallon. Boyle’s plan would offset lost revenue by redirecting subsidies for oil and gas companies.
Several states have also announced gas tax holidays or are considering suspensions of their state fuel taxes.
Some lawmakers have expressed concerns about the potential fiscal consequences of a gas tax holiday. “Obviously, any time you suspend the gas tax, that leaves a big hole in the Highway Trust Fund, which also has implications down the road,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said Monday. Thune told reporters he’d prefer to see the Strait of Hormuz reopened to “normalize” gas prices without legislation but said he’s willing to listen to colleagues who back a tax break.
What a gas tax holiday might cost: The Bipartisan Policy Center think tank estimated last month that a five-month gas tax holiday would reduce gas tax revenue by about $17 billion, or 46% of projected gas and diesel tax revenue to the Highway Trust Fund for fiscal year 2026.
“A suspension would provide modest, temporary relief to consumers at the pump, but in doing so, would blow another hole in the federal deficit and further strain the user-pay, user-benefit system of the [Highway Trust Fund],” the BPC report concluded.
That analysis also found that consumers wouldn’t get the full benefit of the tax holiday. It projected that prices at the pump would fall by 10 cents to 16 cents a gallon, with the rest going to suppliers.
Trump says prices will come down: When asked how long a suspension he would support, Trump didn’t provide a timeframe, saying only “until it’s appropriate.” He also left the timing open in an interview Monday with CBS News: “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,” he said.
The president also reiterated his prediction that gas prices would plummet once the war ends. “Let me tell you, as soon as this is over with Iran, as soon as it’s over, you’re going to see gasoline and oil drop like a rock,” he said.
There’s still no clear end to the conflict in sight, though. Trump on Sunday rejected the latest Iranian response to a U.S. proposal as “totally unacceptable!”
