President Donald Trump says high gas prices are a “small price to pay” for the ongoing war on Iran.
The comments came as the average price of gas on Friday, Sept. 18 was $4.46, according to AAA. That’s up from an average of $4.29 one week ago on Sept. 11, and an average of $3.20 on Sept. 18, 2025.
But Trump dismissed concerns about high gas prices at a Sept. 16 rally in Gastonia, North Carolina.
“It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done. Remember that. It’s a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more,” he said. “But that’s going to come tumbling down.”
A Gallup poll in June 2026 showed many voters disagree with the president. The poll showed 67% of its respondents said gas price increases have caused a financial hardship for them.
With that in mind, the USA TODAY Cars team took a look at why high prices are hitting Americans hard in the pockets.
How much do Americans spend on gas?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans were spending an average of $13,318, or $1,110 per month, which was 17% of their overall expenditures, on transportation at the end of 2024.
At the beginning of 2026, gas prices were forecasted to average $2.97 for the year, which was down for the 2025 average of $3.12, according to the website GasBuddy.com. Americans were forecasted to spend $2,083 per household on gas this year.
But that was before the Iran War started. The national average gas price on Feb. 28, which was the day the United States first launched military strikes against Iran, was $2.98, according to AAA. The last time the weekly average price of gas was below $3.50 a gallon was the week of March 16, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
According to a poll released in April by ABC News, The Washington Post, and Ipsos, 44% of more than 2,000 U.S. adults they served had cut back on driving due to high gas prices.
According to the BLS, the average weekly salary of full-time workers in the U.S. in 2025 was $1,204, which translates to an average annual salary of $62,608. Using GasBuddy’s math, Americans would now be spending $3,182 per year on gas at the current national average price of $4.46, which is over $1,000 than they were initially forecasted to be paying.
How has President Trump previously tried to lower gas prices?
Despite his claims about high gas prices not being a big deal, the Trump administration has made several attempts this year to lower gas prices as voter concerns about pump pain have mounted.
In July, the White House touted the launch of 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations in the northeast United States, all selling fuel at $3.47 a gallon, to great fanfare. But the stations were concentrated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and they appeared to have little impact on prices at the pump in those states. The average price of gas in Pennsylvania on Sept. 18 was $4.52 per gallon, and the average price at the pump in New Jersey on Sept. 10 was $4.43.
Trump has also previously pressured gas retailers to lower prices at the pump, accusing them of price gouging at a time when oil barrel prices were starting to fall.
Trump has been pushing Congress to pass legislation that would allow sales of higher-ethanol gasoline as U.S. lawmakers grapple with rising gas prices that have upset many Americans in an election year.
In an updated 2026 budget request sent to Congress on June 24, the White House requested a new law that would codify “the permanent, year-round sale” of E15 gas, which is gasoline blended with 15% ethanol. Doing so, the White House said, would amount to “an urgent and needed policy change that would expand consumer choice, support domestic fuel production, and provide additional flexibility in fuel markets.”
Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, said in a blog post that gas prices are likely to remain elevated as long as there is an ongoing military conflict in the Middle East.
“While most of the country transitions to cheaper winter-blend gasoline this week, the scale of ongoing geopolitical escalations makes meaningful price relief unlikely in the near term,” De Haan wrote. “Motorists should brace for continued volatility ahead.”
National Trending News Reporter Mary Walrath-Holdridge and New England Political Reporter Margie Cullen contributed to this report.
Keith Laing is an automotive reporter on the National Trending Desk at USA TODAY. Contact Keith at klaing@usatodayco.com.