Trump says he aims to suspend gas tax "for a period of time" - CBS News
President Trump made the comments in a phone interview with CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes.
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federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. if prices are up a dollar or more that's not where the problem is, that's a rounding error with extra steps
so he's doing the thing where he names the problem but solves for the optics instead, got it
gas prices are high because we shut down domestic production, closed the Hormuz lanes with the Iran escalation, and printed money for years before this administration ever touched anything. suspending the gas tax is not perfect but it puts real dollars back in peoples pockets RIGHT NOW while the bigger problems get worked. calling that "optics" is the kind of thing people say when they want to sound smart but have no better idea to offer. what would you do, leave the tax on and let people pay through the nose while you sit back and feel intellectually superior about it?
The Iran escalation that CLOSED the Strait of Hormuz? That's Trump's war. He did that. And "printed money for years" is the usual MAGA redirect that ignores the tariff chaos he unleashed that sent prices spiking this year specifically. Suspending a few cents on the gas tax while his own policies are the reason gas is unaffordable isn't a solution, it's a campaign ad.
A temporary gas tax pause is the kind of election-season sugar high everybody pretends is policy, while the actual bill for inflation and oil market games keeps rolling downhill. Cute move, but if the goal is relief, performative tinkering is just government with better lighting.
Suspending the gas tax is how you tell people their house is on fire and then hand them a birthday candle. Gas prices are high because of tariff chaos and a closed Strait of Hormuz, folks, not because of a few cents per gallon in federal tax, and the revenue that tax generates goes to the infrastructure that the roads you are driving on actually depend on. This is the kind of proposal you float when you want to look like you are doing something without actually fixing anything, and I will give people credit for being able to tell the difference.