Trump backs temporary federal gas tax pause as fuel prices surge

At AAA’s national average of $4.520 a gallon, the federal gasoline tax is only 18.4 cents of the price, or $2.76 on a 15-gallon fill-up. Four such fill-ups in a month would save about $11.04 before state taxes, a modest break that comes with a much larger hole in the Highway Trust Fund, which relies heavily on federal fuel-tax receipts.

Donald Trump said he wanted to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax as fuel prices surged amid the war in Iran, telling CBS News in a phone interview that, “I think it’s a great idea,” and that the tax break would last “for a period of time” before phasing back in when gas prices fell. Reuters reported that gasoline prices had climbed more than 50% since the start of the war, keeping pressure on households and commuters already facing a national average near $4.52 a gallon.

Any suspension would need an act of Congress. The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents a gallon, while the federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents a gallon, and lawmakers would have to decide whether short-term relief at the pump is worth the loss of revenue for roads, bridges and transit. Every 1 billion gallons sold without the gasoline tax would cut about $184 million from infrastructure funding, and the loss would scale quickly into the billions over a month of nationwide fuel sales.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Trump administration was “open to all ideas” to lower fuel costs, including a gas-tax pause. Still, the politics of the proposal are familiar. Joe Biden called for a three-month federal gas-tax holiday in June 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed fuel prices higher, but Congress did not enact it. Economists and policy groups argued then, as they do now, that the savings would be small and the benefit likely short-lived, especially if oil markets kept moving higher.

Democrats have already introduced a new version of the idea in 2026. The Gas Prices Relief Act, led by Senators Mark Kelly and Richard Blumenthal and Representative Chris Pappas, would suspend the 18.4-cent gasoline tax through October 1, 2026. But the same tradeoff remains at the center of the debate: a few dollars saved at the pump today against weaker federal support for the highways and infrastructure drivers depend on tomorrow.