Donald Trump went in front of reporters on Wednesday and claimed gas hit $1.98 a gallon this week “…in a couple of states.” Not only did this not happen (and would have been big news if it had) but, when the reality of gas prices was pointed out, the White House doubled down on the claim while getting a dig in at reporters, who apparently don’t own cars and all live in a “big city bubble.”
A reporter asked Trump when Americans can expect to see inflation driven by his tariff-heavy economic plan. He called the reporter untruthful before falsely claiming that gas reached under $2 a gallon in some states. From CNN:
Trump was responding to a journalist who asked him at the White House how long Americans can expect to experience higher prices because of his trade policies.Trump claimed Americans have already seen the situation “get much better,” alleged the reporter is not “truthful,” then added, “You have gasoline that hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states.”
That’s not true. No state had an average gas price even close to $1.98 per gallon on Wednesday. The two states that were tied with the lowest average gas price on Wednesday, Mississippi and Tennessee, were both at $2.70 per gallon, according to data provided by AAA.
In fact, the national average was over $3 per gallon at $3.17. We know this, because there are multiple tools used by journalists and consumers to track the price of gas, like AAA and GasBuddy, and that even allow consumers to locate the cheapest gas in a state.
The actual cheapest gas in America this week: $2.19 per gallon
When asked to explain the discrepancy, the White House doubled down on Trump’s incorrect claim. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to CNN’s question about the statement by telling journalists to “visit the Middle America, where gas prices are at record lows.”
So, I’m a journalist, who covers gas prices and the auto industry in general, and I live in middle America. You can’t get more fly-over than the great state of Michigan. Here, the average gas price falls firmly in line with the national average being reported by both AAA and GasBuddy: $3.17. But that’s in the glittering, elitist land with such world-renown cities like Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids. However, more gasoline-production-adjacent states like Texas and Alabama were also not seeing $1.98 per gallon. In fact, the lowest gas in the country on Wednesday was $2.19 a gallon of unleaded, at a station in Texas.
There’s a lot of journalists who live in middle America. It’s honestly not that well-paying a gig for most of us. Indeed.com reports the average salary is only a little over $50,000. That number is often higher in big cities, to compensate for more expensive cost of living, but not by much. Unless they’re propped up by family money or a rich spouse (a situation rife in a career that can require at least a year, if not more, of unpaid “internships” to finally get a job) journalists often are middle Americans, with mortgages and childcare payments and work commutes.
All the same cares, in fact, as the “real” Americans who are paying less than $2 a gallon for gas in this mysterious “real” America. A quick glance at his LinkedIn, however, suggests Harrison Fields has worked in DC (and presumably mostly lived there) since 2018, and where the average this week for a gallon of gas was $3.16.
