Trump Says He Is Weighing Suspension of Federal Gas Tax

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is weighing a suspension of the federal gasoline tax, pointing to voter anger over fuel costs a month before the midterm elections.

Any suspension would require an act of Congress; the president cannot unilaterally suspend the federal tax. The levy brings in more than $23 billion a year for highways and public transit.

“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said when asked whether the tax should be suspended.

Trump first raised the idea in May, as the Iran war pushed fuel prices sharply higher. Pump prices have stayed high since. The national average for regular gasoline was $4.3685 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA, more than a dollar above where it stood a year ago.

The federal tax is 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel. Dropping it would cut about 4 percent from the price of a gallon of regular.

Asked about the midterms, Trump said he expected Republicans to “do very well.” He said his rallies were “changing things around” because voters were hearing “what the Republicans have done.”

“Prices are now coming way down,” he said. “And oil, as soon as the war is over, which will be soon, will be coming way down.”

He gave no date for the end of the war and did not say how a tax suspension would pass Congress.

The remarks were reported Tuesday by The Guardian. The president offered no legislative timeline for the proposal.

Reporting by The Guardian. Read the original report: Trump Says He Is Weighing Suspension of Federal Gas Tax.