Gas Prices Today: Trump Downplays $4.26 Pump Pain
President Donald Trump keeps telling voters not to worry about high gas prices. The numbers at the pump tell a different story. Gas prices today average $4.26 a gallon across the United States, according to AAA, and the national average has stayed above $4 a gallon since April. With a week to go until Election Day on November 3, the gap between the president’s dismissal and what drivers pay has become one of the sharpest fault lines of the midterm campaign.
Trump has promised at campaign rallies in recent months that gas prices will drop soon. At a recent rally in Rome, Georgia, he told the crowd that voters are “still paying lower than Biden and Obama.” He went further, anticipating the coverage his remarks would draw. “I can just see the fake headlines,” he said. “‘President Trump is talking about the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.’ That’ll be the headline. But I said I don’t give a damn, I’m going to say: We’re making a frickin’ fortune. Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time. And those pump prices are going to come down.”
The figures do not back up the claim. The average price of gas on Tuesday, October 27, was $4.26 a gallon, according to AAA, up from $3.05 a year earlier, a rise of $1.21. The day before it stood at $4.29, up $1.23 year on year. For a household filling a 15-gallon tank once a week, that is roughly $18 more every week, or more than $70 a month.
Gas Prices Today: What Drivers Are Actually Paying
The national average hides wide differences from state to state. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Tuesday that regular gasoline averaged $4.269 a gallon in the week of October 26, down 1.5 cents, the sixth straight weekly decline since September 21, when it averaged $4.478. Diesel moved the other way, rising 7.6 cents to $6.352 a gallon, its second straight weekly increase. Diesel is now $2.634 a gallon dearer than a year ago; gasoline is $1.234 dearer.
California is the most expensive state, averaging $5.99 a gallon on October 27, according to AAA. Hawaii was close behind at $5.65. At the other end, Arkansas averaged $3.83, the cheapest in USA TODAY’s state-by-state comparison, while Oklahoma averaged $3.91 and North Dakota $4.10. Even the cheapest states are far above where they stood a year ago.
Los Angeles County’s average fell 2.3 cents on Tuesday to $6.073, its 25th decrease in 26 days. Orange County’s fell for the 26th straight day, to $5.953. The declines followed Governor Gavin Newsom’s September 28 decision to allow cheaper winter-blend gasoline to be sold immediately instead of from November 1. Even so, the Los Angeles average is $1.439 more than a year ago, and it has risen $1.379 since the start of the joint U.S.-Israel war on Iran on February 28, which sent oil prices higher. The national average has risen $1.284 since that date.
Trump Says Prices Will Fall. Analysts Say Not Before Election Day
The president’s central promise is that relief is coming. He has repeated at rally after rally that pump prices are going to come down, and he has pointed to the steps his administration and Republican-led states have taken to push them lower: several states have cut fuel taxes, California brought forward the winter-blend switch, and the administration has used the tools available to it to ease supply pressure.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a blog post on October 26 that none of it is likely to deliver a meaningful drop before voters go to the polls. “With the national average for gasoline likely to remain above $4 per gallon and diesel above $6 heading into the U.S. election, the relief motorists and policymakers have been hoping for remains elusive,” he wrote, “even as states have moved to cut fuel taxes and the Trump administration has pulled virtually every lever available.” De Haan added that prices are unlikely to fall significantly before Election Day on November 3, despite Trump and Republican leaders having “pulled virtually every lever available” besides ending the Iran war.
That last point is the one the administration cannot pull quickly. The war with Iran, which began on February 28, is the single largest driver of the oil-price shock behind the pump. Oil prices today, the wholesale benchmark for every gallon sold in America, jumped when the conflict began and have stayed elevated. Until the war ends or supply expands enough to offset it, a president’s levers are limited to the margins: tax holidays, blend rules and reserve releases that move prices by cents, not dollars.
Polling: Three in Four Voters Disapprove of Trump’s Handling of Gas Prices
If the price data is mixed, the polling is not. A Navigator Research poll of registered voters, conducted on October 8, found that 76 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of gas prices, while only 20 percent approve. The same poll found that 73 percent disapprove of his handling of inflation and the cost of living, with only 23 percent approving. Overall, 62 percent disapprove of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 36 percent approve. Navigator said his approval ratings “have hit all-time lows in Navigator tracking.”
Gas prices are the most visible price in American life. Unlike rent or insurance, which arrive monthly, gasoline is bought weekly and priced on signs large enough to read from the road. Voters do not need a news report to know what they paid. That visibility is why the issue has dominated the final week of the campaign, and why the president’s dismissive tone at the Rome rally drew so much attention.
USA TODAY’s Cars Team tested that comparison state by state, matching the latest Civiqs approval tracker, dated October 26, against AAA’s average gas price in each state on October 27. Even where Trump is most popular, drivers are paying far more than a year ago. The five most supportive states: North Dakota, 55 percent approval and $4.10 a gallon; Wyoming, 52 percent and $4.40; Arkansas, 51 percent and $3.83; West Virginia, 49 percent and $4.19; and Oklahoma, 48 percent and $3.91. Wyoming, the second-most supportive state, is paying 14 cents above the national average. The five least supportive are paying the most: Hawaii, 19 percent approval and $5.65 a gallon; Maryland, 21 percent and $4.00; Vermont, 22 percent and $4.34; Massachusetts, 22 percent and $4.34; and California, 24 percent and $5.99, the highest in the nation.
The political risk is that the pain is national, not regional. North Dakota, Wyoming, West Virginia and Oklahoma are among the most Republican states in the country, and all four are paying more than $3.90 a gallon. The voters feeling the squeeze are the same voters the president needs to turn out on November 3.
The Economy News Backdrop: Confidence Up, but Anxiety Lingers
One piece of economy news cuts in the administration’s favor. The Conference Board reported on October 27 that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 91.7 in October, up from a revised 84.2 in September, the weakest reading since April 2014. The rebound beat forecasts of about 80 to 81, and it was the first increase in four months. The Present Situation Index rose 8.6 points to 120.4, while the Expectations Index climbed 6.9 points to 72.6 after three straight monthly declines.
Gas prices were a big part of the story. “The recovery was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October,” said Fergus McCormick, senior economist for global indicators at the Conference Board. Regular gasoline averaged about $4.26 a gallon on Tuesday, roughly 22 cents less than a month earlier. The survey, conducted online from October 1 to 21, caught the period when pump prices fell most steadily.
But the same report carried a warning. The Expectations Index remained below 80, the level the Conference Board associates with a recession within the next year. Respondents’ 12-month inflation expectations stayed elevated at 5.8 percent. Households still complained about grocery prices, and the survey showed Americans planning to spend less on services and big-ticket purchases heading into the holidays. McCormick put the rebound in context: “Consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that’s persisted over the past few years.” One good month does not erase a longer slide. The inflation report data due in the coming weeks will show whether the easing at the pump is feeding through to the broader cost of living, and the cpi inflation data will be watched by the Federal Reserve as it weighs its next move on interest rates.
What Happens Next: One Week to Election Day
The midterm elections 2026 will be decided on November 3, and the cost of living has become the central issue of the final week. Democrats have campaigned heavily on it, arguing that the president appears more interested in other priorities than in the prices ordinary Americans pay. The gas price figures give that argument a fresh anchor: a number every voter can check on the way to work and a president on record dismissing the concern. Republicans point to the direction of travel: prices have fallen for six consecutive weeks, and the administration argues its policies are working, just slowly. The polling suggests that message is not landing. When 76 percent of registered voters disapprove of the president’s handling of gas prices, the issue is no longer a partisan talking point. It is a shared experience.
The immediate question is whether gas prices today will move before voters cast their ballots. GasBuddy’s De Haan does not expect a significant decrease before November 3; the weekly EIA data suggests the declines are measured in cents, not dollars. Beyond the election, the same forces will shape prices. Oil prices today will be set by the course of the Iran war, by OPEC supply decisions, and by the strength of the global economy. Winter-blend gasoline, cheaper to produce, is now flowing in California and will spread to other markets on the usual schedule. None of these moves quickly, and none of them is in the gift of a campaign rally promise.
For the White House, the week ahead is about managing a story it cannot control. The president has promised that pump prices are going to come down and told voters they are paying less than under his predecessors. The AAA data says the average driver is paying $1.21 a gallon more than a year ago, and the Navigator poll says three in four voters do not accept the president’s account. On November 3, voters will deliver their own verdict, and unlike a rally crowd, they will have the receipt from the pump in their hands.
Source: USA Today