Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

As you can see from the GasBuddy chart above of the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US over the past 12 months, the line beginning on the left side of the chart is lower than on the right side of the chart. 

Or simply, gas was cheaper a year ago than it is now.

But according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday (November 20):

“Thanks to President Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda, the national average price of a gallon of gas on Thanksgiving Day is projected to be the cheapest price since COVID pandemic in 2021.”

Perhaps something will happen and the price will drop by November 27.

Also on November 20 AAA put out a news release about gas prices “As drivers prepare to hit the road for Thanksgiving.”

It says:

“. . .gas prices are relatively steady compared to last week. The national average for a gallon of regular went up by a couple of cents to $3.10.”

Went up!?!

There is an acknowledgement by AAA that pump prices are not particularly high at the moment.

Why?

“Despite the burst of gasoline demand that will occur during Thanksgiving week, overall demand is low this time of year which helps keep prices down.”

In other words, like the period that Leavitt refers to, during the COVID pandemic in 2021, economic forces work: the demand is low, so the prices are low.

While the demand for gas in 2020 and 2021 was low because people were staying close to home — or in their homes — so as not to spread the virus (yes, it is real, and the vaccine that the first Trump Administration did a good job on quickly developing was not, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., claimed “the deadliest vaccine ever made”), likely the demand is down this Thanksgiving thanks to the tariff-induced price rises that Americans are experiencing in places like grocery stores.

In the event that the Administration lifts other tariffs as it has recently done for some grocery items and Karoline Leavitt goes out and claims something like, “The President’s policies are making things more affordable for the American people,” keep in mind that the reason those prices were higher are because of “The President’s policies.”

Very clever: make something artificially more expensive and then reduce the price and claim that the affordability is a result of policies to bring down prices.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.