Trump dodges gas-price question as Strait of Hormuz blockade plan looms
President Donald Trump didn’t exactly give voters a straight answer on gas prices—at least not the kind you can build a campaign message out of.
On Sunday, speaking by phone with “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo, Trump responded to a blunt question about whether oil and gas prices—soaring since he launched the U.S. into the Iran war—will be lower before November’s midterms. “I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be or the same or maybe a little bit higher,” he said, pausing in a way that sounded more like hesitation than certainty. Bartiromo, according to Misryoum newsroom reporting, reacted visibly as graphics on screen tracked crude and pump prices.
Trump later added: “But it should be around the same. I think this won’t be that much longer.” And when the conversation circled back—“Do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections?”—his answer basically stayed in the same orbit: “I hope so. I mean, I think so, it could be. It could be the same or maybe a little bit higher.” It was, honestly, the kind of verbal motion that leaves you thinking the destination is negotiable. Or maybe that’s the point.
The timing matters because the talk wasn’t happening in a vacuum. Moments before, Bartiromo pressed Trump on his freshly-announced plans for the U.S. Navy to begin blockading ships in the Strait of Hormuz—an idea Trump framed as a “complete blockade” of the key passageway for the world’s oil trade. Misryoum editorial desk noted that Trump told Bartiromo the plan would, “eventually,” lead to lower oil and gas prices, but that it “might not happen initially.” In other words: benefits later, pain now.
While the interview moved between foreign policy and domestic costs, Fox News displayed on-screen numbers that made the stakes feel immediate. Misryoum newsroom reporting highlighted that the national average gas price has hit $4.125 a gallon in AAA’s estimate, as of Sunday. That figure has increased nearly $0.53 from a month ago, when the average price was at $3.598 a gallon, per AAA.
The political pushback is tied to inflation’s calendar too. In March, the jump in oil and gas prices led to the biggest monthly spike in inflation in four years—a development Misryoum analysis indicates runs against Trump’s 2024 vows to lower rising costs for Americans during his second stint in the Oval Office. It’s one thing to argue the direction of prices over time. It’s another to say costs are coming down while the numbers on the screen are still climbing.
And Trump’s broader claims kept shifting as the phone call went on. He proceeded to claim that Iran is “wiped out” before the conversation drifted into the rescue of two U.S. aviators whose fighter jet was shot down in the country. One small real-world detail that stuck with me—whether intentional or not—was the faint, constant buzz of a late-night TV through a hotel wall, the kind that makes you aware of every graphic flip and every pause in speech. In that environment, his uncertainty on prices landed louder. Then he returned to bigger bragging: he has “the greatest economy ever,” and the U.S. is “in great shape.”
Misryoum newsroom reporting also noted that Trump suggested the worst-case scenario might not be worse than today—“around the same,” as he put it—just not much shorter. It’s not nothing, but it’s also not a promise. And with midterms approaching, the difference between hope and certainty becomes its own kind of fuel.