Trump's gaslighting on fuel prices falls flat

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media, as he departs the White House for Las Vegas, Nevada, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 16, 2026. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

President Donald Trump tried to bicker and figuratively gaslight a reporter about the literal price of gas in America — and then changed the subject.

“How much longer will Americans continue to see high gas prices?” the reporter asked Trump on Thursday. To this the president replied with a lie.

“They’re not very high,” Trump said. “They’ve come down very much over the last few days.”

The reporter shot back that gas is “$4 a gallon still,” to which Trump replied that “that’s what ABC says. But if you look at the stock market it's up…”

"THIS EXCHANGE IS BIZARRE,” an X account posted in response to the video. “Is Trump flat out lying or just delusional? Or both?"

Another X user, Jackson Clinton, simply wrote “Let them eat cake,” while another was more loquacious, joking sarcastically that “oh good I thought I was paying way too much for gas. I'm so glad it is just fake news. I'll have to go to the gas station and get my money back and have them arrested for stealing.”

Trump has set a precedent for himself and others in the White House to distract from controversies by pointing to the stock market. Speaking to lawmakers earlier this year about Trump’s ties with the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi infamously complained that Trump’s critics were not happy about the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently spiking to 50,000.

Dr. Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute, told AlterNet last week that the Iran war is raising prices not just on gasoline, but on a wide range of essential products.

“I would guess that yes, destruction of Iranian (and some other) energy facilities in the Persian Gulf area will have at least a medium-term effect keeping prices for crude oil and chemical fertilizer high, and that in turn means gasoline prices may come down only slowly,” Gresser told AlterNet. “Same for other petroleum-based products such as plastics, skin creams, and so on. The high potential of conflict also adds risk premiums to shipping and other costs.”

He concluded, “Longer-term, lots of open questions. One is whether the administration will really concede that Iran has a right to close the Strait of Hormuz and assess tolls on shipping passing through it. That would make the smaller Gulf monarchies and to some extent Iraq reliant on Iranian good will for all of their exports. Likewise, Asian countries are the main buyers of Persian Gulf energy, and their supplies would be much less secure.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai echoed Trump’s own assertion that the economy is in great shape.

“President Trump has been clear about short-term disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, and the Administration went into this military engagement with a plan to mitigate these disruptions to America’s long-term economic resurgence," Desai told AlterNet. "As energy markets begin to stabilize, historic tax refund checks hit the mail, and the rest of the Trump administration’s pro-growth agenda continues taking effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.”

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