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Gasoline prices are among the top issues for midterm voters, but President Donald Trump tried to paint today’s prices at the pump as not so bad compared with under his Democratic predecessors.
The national average price of gasoline was $4.42 per gallon when Trump made the remark at a rally in Perry, Georgia. That price is “gonna come way down,” Trump said Oct. 24.
“But what we’ve done for this country — we’re making money like this country has never made before,” he continued. “So I said, ‘Let me say it very gingerly, very softly,’ because somebody would say the fake news (will say), ‘He’s bragging about making money while people are suffering.’ … You know, you’re still paying lower than (under) Biden and Obama.”
Both Trump and his critics have oversimplified this talking point. We examined it three ways: looking at nominal and peak prices; how long the price spikes lasted; and as a portion of disposable household income.
For many Americans, the most familiar way to look at this is through the price at the pump that isn’t adjusted for inflation, known as “nominal” dollars. By that metric, Trump’s statement is flawed.
Today’s $4.42 price per gallon national average is higher than it was any day during Obama’s presidency. Gasoline reached a record $5 a gallon under Biden, but it didn’t stay high very long. For all but 12 weeks of Biden’s tenure, or 94% of his time in office, gasoline cost less than today’s level of $4.42.
However, when comparing a product’s price over a decade and a half, inflation inevitably becomes a factor. One measurement that seeks to standardize comparisons across time finds that Americans are paying less of their disposable income on gasoline now than they were most of the time under Obama and Biden.
Looking at peak gasoline prices
One way to look at this question is to look only at the highest price of gasoline under each president. Under Obama, the peak was $4.17 a gallon — which, if not adjusted for inflation, is less than the current $4.42 under Trump. That would make Trump’s statement in relation to Obama wrong.
Under Trump, the price peaked at $4.50 in mid May.
The peak under Biden was $5, following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which roiled world energy markets. So just comparing Biden’s peak to today, gasoline cost more under Biden than Trump.
How long did high gasoline prices last?
Using only the peak price doesn’t tell the full story. Higher prices matter more if they last for a long time, and they have been high for longer under Trump.
In Trump’s second term, average national gasoline prices haven’t been below $3.78 a gallon since the beginning of April, one month after Trump launched the Iraq war. The national average has been below $4 for only three out of the 29 weeks since the beginning of April.
Gasoline’s national average exceeded $4 a gallon in 7% of Obama’s weeks in office, compared with more than 30% of Trump’s second-term tenure.
While Biden presided over the all-time national-average high of $5 a gallon, average prices didn’t stay that high for very long. Gasoline exceeded $4 a gallon for five months, or about 11% of Biden’s tenure.
On the other end of the scale, gasoline cost less than $2.50 for roughly a quarter of the time under Obama and about 1% of the time under Biden. It’s never been that low during Trump’s second term. (It did hit that level during Trump’s first term, especially in a period during the pandemic when travel and commuting declined significantly, dampening demand.)
Inflation changes the equation
When contacted for comment, the White House pointed to inflation adjustments to the peak prices under each president. These show that, using the consumer price index, gasoline cost more in inflation-adjusted dollars under both Obama and Biden.
It’s reasonable to use adjustments to compare prices from 17 years ago to today, because inflation impacts prices over long periods of time. The question is how to do it.
Adjusting gasoline prices with the consumer price index, as the White House did, is an imperfect measurement, because gasoline is one of the drivers of higher overall inflation. A rise in the price of gasoline affects both the numerator and the denominator, making it difficult to untangle inflation from gasoline price inflation.
So we used a different metric that looks at the economic burden of buying a standard amount of gasoline every week.
First, we calculated the average cost of 10 gallons of gas, which is close to the average consumer’s weekly purchase, according to GasBuddy.com. Then we used data for per capita personal disposable income from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. This figure reflects not just salaries and wages but also government payments, then adjusts that amount for taxes paid. We divided this personal disposable income figure by 52, to approximate weekly income. Then we divided the cost of 10 gallons of gas by the weekly income figure to determine what percentage of weekly income was devoted to paying for a typical amount of gasoline on a weekly basis.
This isn’t perfect, either, because it’s based on an average of all U.S. income, which can be skewed by faster income growth among the richest Americans. But this metric shows much the same pattern as a simple adjustment by the consumer price index does.
Compared with data from the second quarter of 2026 — the most recent available — weekly gasoline purchases accounted for a higher share of disposable income than now during seven of eight years Obama was in office. It was also higher than now during three of Biden’s four years in office.
Trump’s talking point also ignores that the second-quarter 2026 share under Trump is higher than it was during Biden’s final year in office, 2024.
Our ruling
Trump said for gasoline prices, “You’re still paying lower than (under) Biden and Obama.”
Using the current weekly national average — $4.42 per gallon — and ignoring inflation, Trump is wrong that gasoline cost more under Obama. Under Obama, a gallon of gasoline never rose above $4.17.
Under Biden, average gasoline prices peaked at $5 a gallon, a level it has not reached under Trump. Under Biden, gasoline was above $4 a gallon for about five months, or 11% of his tenure. Under Trump, it’s been above $4 most of the time during the past seven months.
However, a metric of how burdensome gasoline prices are for a household budget gives a different impression. Today, 10 gallons of gasoline a week accounts for a smaller share of income than it did in seven of eight years under Obama, and than in three of Biden’s four years in office.
The statement is partially accurate but ignores important information, so we rate it Half True.
Our Sources
- Donald Trump, remarks at a rally in Perry, Georgia, Oct. 24, 2026
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Weekly all U.S. grades, all formulations retail gasoline price,” accessed Oct. 23, 2026
- U.S. Commerce Department, interactive data, accessed Oct. 26, 2026
- White House, statement to PolitiFact, Oct. 26, 2026
