Trump: Gas Prices Likely Won't Drop Before November

President Trump said over the weekend that the high gas prices brought on by the war in Iran are here to stay, in all likelihood, until at least November's midterm elections. The President initially called the spike in prices a "short-term increase," reports The New York Times. Trump's most recent comments on oil and gas costs came on Fox News this weekend, when he told anchors that prices "should be around the same" in November, and maybe "a little bit higher."

Gas prices have hinged on peace talks between Iran and the US, but without success, prices rose. According to AAA's gas pricing tracker, the national average as of publishing sits at $4.093 per gallon of regular gas. Douglas Heye, a Republican strategist, said that rising gas prices (and consumer prices as a whole) are "...a big obstacle - that just got a little taller." Prices have continued to rise as the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of global oil traffic flowed before the war, remains shut. Prices have spiked by a dollar per gallon in the last month. Iran’s speaker of its Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said, “Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4-$5 gas.”

Tensions in the Strait have been a focus of the conflict between Iran and the United States, leading directly to a spike in gas prices across the nation. States with historically higher gas prices have suffered most under higher prices. California is home to the highest gas prices in the country, even during peacetime, and the war in Iran has sent prices soaring in line with the rest of the United States. As of publishing, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in California is $5.864. Prices could temporarily fall following EPA plans to allow the sale of higher-ethanol E15 fuel at pumps across the nation.