{"id":10817,"date":"2026-07-19T20:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10817"},"modified":"2026-07-19T20:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T15:17:32","slug":"gas-prices-are-rising-again-and-so-is-gop-grief-in-the-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10817","title":{"rendered":"Gas prices are rising again \u2014 and so is GOP grief in the midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/zGaOO7ucQ_L2JbFLZDgbl3O_xJ8=\/smart\/2022\/03\/17\/221202-1647555122485.gif\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just when Republicans thought they&#8217;d caught a break on gas prices, the collapse of President Trump&#8217;s Iran deal is derailing their best chance to change the inflation story before the midterms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Falling gas prices are one of the most tangible ways to ease voter anger over inflation. Renewed combat \u2014 and the threat of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/17\/trump-iran-israel-refueling-planes\" target=\"_blank\">escalation<\/a> \u2014 has prices shooting back up.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>Trump has said repeatedly that gas prices will &#8220;drop like a rock&#8221; when the war is over. But the war doesn&#8217;t look like it&#8217;s ending anytime soon.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When the U.S. first launched attacks on Feb. 28, average gas prices nationally were $2.98 a gallon, per AAA. They eclipsed $4.50 in May, gradually dropped to about $3.75 earlier this month, and are now flirting with the $4 mark since combat broke out again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Surprisingly, Americans typically don&#8217;t punish politicians for their own economic suffering; instead, they tend to look at how government policies are affecting the country overall.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But gas prices are a different story, says Stanford&#8217;s Jon Krosnick, who&#8217;s studied how they affect politics.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to think about any other economic indicator where the number is literally posted on signs on the streets where everybody&#8217;s traveling,&#8221; he told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Data: <a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https%3A\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/__;!!Al82Z4c!y0HFkAWefl6_RWOl8MbMnWr2fsWdISurzWcs11lbv1fBnRzJfz0IDKiO1KTFftez3802ej3DDD26KFzBe25M$\" target=\"_blank\">AAA<\/a>; Chart: Erin Davis\/Axios Visuals<\/div>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Krosnick, in a 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1FxWxe0fX7w6nnpo6qzeaAJJzWye50y4Y\/view\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> looking at three decades of evidence, found that a 10-cent increase in gas prices caused a 0.6% drop in a president&#8217;s approval ratings. He said the effect extends to the president in power&#8217;s party.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unlike other instances where presidents could blame other global factors, it&#8217;s clear in this case that Trump owns the war.<\/li>\n<li>And Iran&#8217;s unwillingness to open the Strait of Hormuz shows he can&#8217;t dictate events like he&#8217;s used to.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;If the strait stays closed, he could be in deep trouble in the election,&#8221; says Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former International Monetary Fund official. &#8220;Iran knows it can cause real damage to the economy before the election.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Nearly eight in 10 Americans say gas prices are straining their household budgets, according to a PBS\/NPR\/Marist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/trumps-economic-approval-rating-hits-new-low-poll-finds\" target=\"_blank\">poll<\/a> last month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Context: <\/strong>The Republican-controlled Congress approved a housing affordability bill that Trump panned. Otherwise, the GOP has little to point to on the subject of voters feeling squeezed by higher prices.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump has fixated on unproven allegations of voter fraud, rather than inflation and the economy.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I think oil is going to be a little bit of a yo-yo. Goes up a little bit, goes down a little bit,&#8221; Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LKOT6QWkrIQ\" target=\"_blank\">told Fox Business<\/a> last week. &#8220;And when this is over oil is gonna drop like a rock.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but: <\/strong>The status of the war changes constantly. With almost four months until the election, conditions in Iran could shift in a way that causes gas prices to fall again in time for Republicans to benefit.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Long-term trends matter, but short-term trends also matter,&#8221; Krosnick says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>As gas prices go, so may GOP hopes in the midterms.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just when Republicans thought they&#8217;d caught a break on gas prices, the collapse of President Trump&#8217;s Iran deal is derailing their best chance to change the inflation story before the midterms. Why it matters: Falling gas prices are one of the most tangible ways to ease voter anger over inflation. Renewed combat \u2014 and the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/zGaOO7ucQ_L2JbFLZDgbl3O_xJ8=\/smart\/2022\/03\/17\/221202-1647555122485.gif","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}