When Biden came into office, in January of 2021, gas was very cheap, selling for just under $2.40 a gallon. That was primarily because the economy was still feeling the effects of the pandemic. Unemployment was 6.4 percent, and we were down six million jobs from the pre-pandemic period.
The price rose quickly as the U.S. and world economy recovered, reaching $3.40 by February of 2022. Part of the reason for the rapid rise was that oil that had been taken out of production could not be instantly restarted once demand increased. Removing oil from production during the pandemic was a political decision taken in part by Donald Trump, in order to prevent oil producers from taking large losses.
Prices rose much further when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and Biden responded by putting sanctions on Russian oil. The price peaked at over $5 a gallon in June but then fell back quickly as more oil came online. By the end of 2022, it had fallen to around $3.20 a gallon. It hovered around this level until Biden left office.
In January of 2025, when Donald Trump took office, the price was around $3.10 a gallon. It stayed around this level through most of the year, falling somewhat below $3.00 in December and bottoming out at $2.80 in January of 2026.
Then the decision to attack Iran sent gas prices soaring. They hit $4.00 a gallon by the end of March and peaked at over $4.50 a gallon in early May. Since then, they have bounced around in response to reports of peace agreements and new threats but have mostly been near $4.00 a gallon. (They are $4.08 today.)
Taking the averages to date, prices are still somewhat lower under Trump than under Biden: an average of $3.35 a gallon under Trump compared to $3.46 in the four years of the Biden administration.
However, this gap is being whittled away with gas over $4.00 a gallon due to the largely closed Strait of Hormuz. If gas prices are not brought down, Trump will soon be able to boast of having higher gas prices on average than Joe Biden.
Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of the 2016 book Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.
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