Trump Says He Is Considering a Federal Gas Tax Suspension as Fuel Prices Dominate the Final Stretch Before Midterms

President Donald Trump said Oct. 6 that he is considering suspending the federal gas tax. "We're thinking about that," he told reporters when asked. He gave no details on how or when.

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. The national average for regular unleaded was $4.36 on Oct. 6, up from $3.13 a year earlier.

Midterm elections are days away, and fuel prices have become a central issue. Rising gas prices tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict have become a political flashpoint, and congressional Republicans are trailing Democrats in the polls, according to The Center Square.

Americans have spent about $145 billion more on gasoline and diesel than at this point last year, according to GasBuddy. Global oil prices have climbed more than 85% this year, per data from Seaport Research.

Diesel is worse. AAA put the national average at roughly $6.32 a gallon on a recent Monday, versus about $3.69 a year earlier. The all-time record of $5.816 was set in June 2022. Diesel later reached $6.52, and a gallon was still about $2.60 higher than a year earlier when NPR checked AAA data in early October.

Truckers say they cannot pass the cost along. "Fuel prices is going up. The rates are not going up," said Miami-based driver Suave Dorsett, who saw diesel at $7.40 a gallon in Ohio. He predicted smaller owner-operators will be the first to park their rigs, with larger carriers feeling it after.

The diesel order

On Oct. 5, Trump signed an executive order expanding access to red-dyed diesel, normally reserved for off-road farm and construction equipment. The fuel is exempt from the 24.4-cent federal tax on commercial diesel. Using it on highways normally brings an IRS penalty of $1,000 or $10 per gallon, whichever is greater.

The order directs penalty relief for highway use and a review of whether certain diesel tax payments can be deferred through Dec. 31. Trump said it could save truckers about $100 per fill-up.

Will O'Neill, a principal analyst at S&P Global Energy, told NPR that using dyed diesel on the road is "effectively a form of tax evasion" under current rules. The order allows dyed diesel on highways through the end of the year, and the IRS won't penalize anyone who uses it.

Who is blamed

Trump says Hormuz is no longer the problem. On Oct. 5 he wrote on Truth Social that gasoline is being driven up by refineries, "where Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California." On Oct. 6 he said oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz are matching and sometimes exceeding prewar levels.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Oct. 4 that the waterway would not reopen until Washington met conditions under a summer agreement. The two accounts conflict.

The EIA's Oct. 5 analysis said renewed Middle East strikes and shipping disruptions pushed crude higher in the third quarter. It listed U.S. and Iranian attacks on tankers, the U.S. blockade of Iranian oil exports, attacks on pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, attacks on Saudi tankers near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Ukrainian drone strikes on Novorossiysk.

On diesel specifically, the supply squeeze involves more than the Gulf. Ukrainian strikes have knocked many Russian refineries offline, and both Russia and China have cut diesel exports, NPR reported.

Democrats put the blame on the war itself. "The war in Iran, the senseless, reckless war that Donald Trump brought us into with no plan, is the primary cause of skyrocketing gas prices and inflation," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wrote on X on Oct. 6.

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Some Republicans are also pushing for an exit. Senate candidates Mike Rogers of Michigan and Ashley Hinson of Iowa have called for an end to the war and proposed steps to cut fuel costs in the meantime.

Venezuelan oil and energy profits

Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. will receive one million barrels of Venezuelan oil at "NO cost to the American Taxpayer." He called it "just the first shipment of BILLIONS of barrels to come" and said gas and diesel prices "will soon come plummeting down."

Meanwhile, energy companies are thriving. Seaport Research data show U.S. energy company earnings have more than doubled from a year ago. The S&P 500 Energy index is up about 52% this year and hit an all-time high Monday, while the S&P 500 as a whole is up nearly 13%.

Trump has cited the windfall himself. "The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars," he said at a rally Saturday in Perry, Ga.

A report the Congress Joint Economic Committee released Monday found that Trump's oil and gas holdings rose by as much as $35.8 million this year, to as much as $81.6 million. That is nearly double the level at the end of 2025.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the president's portfolio is "independently managed by third-party financial institutions" and that all decisions are "made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest."

Kenneth Kim, a senior economist at KPMG, said rising stock values do not reach everyone. Lower-income families often hold no stocks or 401(k)s, he said, and feel the "direct brunt of higher energy prices eating into their paychecks."

What comes next

Trump has offered no formal details on a gas tax suspension since Oct. 6. The dyed diesel relief and the diesel tax deferral review both run through Dec. 31, which leaves truckers and farmers with a deadline to watch once the votes are counted.