Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is considering suspending the federal gas tax, a sign that the president is noticing voters’ anger over fuel prices, a month before the midterm elections.
“We’re considering it,” Trump said when asked whether the tax should be suspended.
Any suspension would require an act of Congress. The president cannot unilaterally suspend federal taxes.
Trump first raised the idea in May, as the war in Iran was causing fuel prices to rise sharply. Since then, prices at the pump have remained high. The national average for regular was $4.3685 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA, more than a dollar higher than a year ago.
The federal tax is 18.4¢ per gallon on gasoline and 24.4¢ on diesel. Abandoning it would reduce the price of a gallon of regular water by about 4%. The tax also raises more than $23 billion a year for highways and public transportation.
Asked about the midterm elections, Trump said he expected Republicans to “do very well.” He said his rallies were “changing things” because voters were hearing “what Republicans did.”
“Prices are coming down significantly,” he said. “And oil, as soon as the war is over, which will be soon, will decline considerably. »
He gave no date for the end of the war and did not specify how a tax holiday would be passed by Congress.
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