Trump’s energy secretary refuses to say US gas price average won’t hit $5 a gallon as impacts of Iran war worsen

Energy Secretary Chris Wright refused to rule out gas hitting $5 a gallon on average as Americans face a summer travel season defined by skyrocketing fuel costs.

President Donald Trump’s military attacks on Iran and the subsequent Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz - through which 20 per cent of the global oil supply is transported - has seen U.S. gas prices soar.

The average cost for a gallon was $4.52 Sunday, according to AAA. Before the war started in late February, the price was $2.98 per gallon and gas was $3.13 a gallon on average in mid-May 2025.

Despite Wright saying in April that high gas prices would last “only a few weeks,” he refused to be drawn on the $5 price point.

“I'm just avoiding price predictions,” Wright told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “Gasoline and diesel prices are up, and they will remain up while this conflict's in place, and then they will come back down. And ultimately they'll come back down lower than they were before.”

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Wright also insisted that U.S. domestic production could help fill the gaps. The U.S. is not reliant on oil that is transported via tankers in the Strait, with the exception of some types of heavy crude needed for refineries. But in the complex, interwoven nature of the global oil market, the U.S. has not been immune to supply shocks and price hikes.

An analysis from JP Morgan Friday warned that gas prices were now at risk of crossing the $5 per gallon average later this summer as travel ramps up.

Many states where gas taxes are higher, like California, Oregon and Washington, have already seen price averages above $5 per gallon. In California, the average is $6.15 per gallon.

These price shocks are now layered on top of Americans’ existing frustrations about the cost of living, which Trump promised to addressed in his first year in office. Recent polling revealed that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Trump has insisted that gas prices will come “crashing down” once the war ends.

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"I see it going down very substantially when this is over, I think very rapidly too, at levels that you've never seen because there's a lot of energy out there, ships all over the world that are loaded up with it," he told reporters at the White House last week.

The Trump administration continues to negotiate with Iran over the passage of ships through the strait. But a blockade enacted by the U.S. Navy has failed to stop attacks against ships that pass through the strait without Iran’s authorization, as have retaliatory U.S. strikes.

On Sunday, Iran delivered its response to the latest U.S. proposal to Pakistan, which is moderating the negotiations.The proposal is reportedly focused on finding a permanent end to the conflict and resolving the question of control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Wright separately warned Iranian officials on CBS’s Face the Nation that the U.S. would resume efforts to open the strait by force if talks failed. "If it's clear in the next few days that there's not a good path to a negotiated settlement, we'll go back to the military method to open the strait," he said.

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