President Donald Trump’s claims about gas prices were not true when he made them during his State of the Union address last week. Now those claims are aging like milk.

The fallout from its attacks on Iran over the weekend appears to have disrupted the global energy market, and Americans are already paying for it at the gas pump, trackers show.

Fuel market expert Patrick De Haan, who runs gasoline price tracker Gas Buddy and posts real-time fuel cost updates on social media, noted that gas prices began “rising” on Monday and surpassed a national average of $3 a gallon. It is the first time since December that the national average is this high, he said in X.

Fuel prices are displayed at a gas pump Tuesday in Franklin, Tennessee.
Fuel prices are displayed at a gas pump Tuesday in Franklin, Tennessee.

via News

On Tuesday, he noted, gasoline prices saw their biggest single-day increase since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. After that increase, he predicted average prices would reach as much as $3.35 a gallon if trends remain stable.

A survey by AAA found similar prices at gas stations this week.

Even before this sudden spike, gas prices were not as low as Trump claimed. While he touted during his national address that they were “now below $2.30 per gallon in most states and in some places at $1.99 per gallon,” Oklahoma was the only state offering gas at $2.30 per gallon, according to a fact check by The Guardian.

The day Trump made those claims, national average gas prices were around $2.95.

But Trump’s attacks on Iran over the weekend, carried out in coordination with Israel and prompting reciprocal attacks across the Middle East, have poured even more cold water on his claims. The attacks have damaged the region’s massive energy infrastructure and paralyzed oil and gas tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the only connection point between the Persian Gulf and the open ocean. Analysts at the Netherlands’ Rabobank said Tuesday they anticipate impacts on shipping in the area could last up to three months.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that there could be
President Donald Trump said Tuesday there could be “oil prices a little high for a while.”

image alliance via Getty Images

The attacks have caused oil prices to surge, with the cost of Brent crude, the international standard, jumping to more than $80 a barrel on Tuesday, up from $70 less than a week ago.

Trump downplayed the rise in oil prices.

“We’re going to have oil prices a little bit high for a while, but as soon as this is over, those prices are going to fall, I think, even lower than before,” he said.

The widening conflict, which Trump said Tuesday he expects to last at least a month, has also spooked the stock market. While major tech stocks helped the market rally at Monday’s close, it remains to be seen if a recovery is possible on Tuesday, given Trump’s comments.

“I think the possibility of a longer mission may weigh on markets over the next few weeks,” Jeffrey O’Connor, Liquidnet’s head of U.S. equity market structure, told CNBC on Tuesday.