Energy secretary says Trump is open to suspending federal gas tax

Cutting the federal gasoline tax would shave 18.4 cents from a gallon, a small slice of the $4.522 national average and far less than the swings driven by crude oil, refining and distribution. That is the kitchen-table math behind Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he said the Trump administration is “open to all ideas” to lower gas prices, including suspending the federal gas tax.

Wright’s comments marked a modest softening in the White House’s posture as drivers face prices that remain elevated across the country. Even if Congress enacted a full federal gas-tax holiday and every penny reached consumers, the drop would move a typical gallon from about $4.522 to roughly $4.34 before state taxes and retailer pricing decisions are folded in. The diesel tax, at 24.4 cents per gallon, would create a somewhat larger cut for freight operators, but the underlying problem would remain the same: most of what motorists pay is not federal tax.

That is why the policy debate is less about pure price relief than about who absorbs the loss. The federal fuel tax has not been raised since 1993, and it remains a core revenue source for the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for roads, bridges and transit. For more than two decades, fuel-tax collections have fallen short of federal transportation spending, forcing repeated transfers from the Treasury’s general fund to keep the trust fund afloat. If Washington suspends the tax without replacing the money, the gap would widen for the same highways, bus lines and bridge repairs that households, workers and emergency responders depend on every day.

The public-health stakes are easy to overlook in a debate framed around gasoline. When road and transit funding gets squeezed, repairs slow, bus service suffers and older bridges deteriorate, leaving communities to shoulder higher costs in time, safety and access to care. The burden lands hardest in car-dependent areas and in households already stretched by food, rent and medical bills.

Wright also said the administration’s broader priority remained ending Iran’s nuclear program and restoring secure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a route that matters to global oil flows and, by extension, pump prices at home. Lawmakers have floated gas-tax relief before, including in Georgia, where the state suspended its motor fuel excise tax beginning March 18, 2022, extended it several times and reinstated it on January 11, 2023. The repeated return to that idea shows how appealing gas-tax politics can be, and how limited the relief usually is once the numbers are laid out.