President Donald Trump says his administration is considering a federal gasoline-tax suspension, raising the prospect of immediate—but limited—relief for drivers paying an average of more than $4.36 a gallon.
“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said Tuesday, October 6, when asked whether the federal gas tax should be suspended, according to Reuters. He offered no timeline or detailed plan, and a tax holiday cannot take effect on the president’s word alone: Congress would have to pass legislation.
What drivers could actually save
The federal tax has been 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel since 1997, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
If the full gasoline-tax cut reached consumers, the arithmetic would be straightforward:
- A 12-gallon fill-up would cost about $2.21 less.
- A 15-gallon fill-up would cost about $2.76 less.
- A 20-gallon fill-up would cost about $3.68 less.
For a commercial truck buying 100 gallons of diesel, the maximum federal-tax reduction would be $24.40.
AAA listed regular gasoline at a national average of $4.3685 per gallon on October 6, with diesel at $6.3151. At those prices, eliminating the federal levy would equal roughly 4.2% of the retail price of regular gasoline and 3.9% of diesel.
Those figures are the theoretical maximum at the pump. The final benefit would depend on how lawmakers structure the measure and how much of the tax reduction refiners, distributors and retailers pass to motorists.
The biggest obstacle is Congress
Trump has supported a gasoline-tax pause before, but no federal holiday has been enacted. One existing proposal, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s Gas Tax Suspension Act, was introduced May 11 and referred to the Senate Finance Committee. The measure would create a temporary holiday for both gasoline and diesel taxes.
That history matters because Tuesday’s comment is not an executive order, and it is not a price cut already scheduled to appear on station signs. It is a policy under consideration that would require lawmakers to agree on its length, funding and consumer protections.
Why fuel costs are back at the center of Washington
The comment comes as household affordability and fuel prices dominate the final weeks before the November midterm elections. Gasoline remains more than $1.23 a gallon above its year-ago level, according to AAA’s October 6 figures. Diesel is more than $2.63 higher than a year earlier.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its October Short-Term Energy Outlook that gasoline averaged $4.35 a gallon in September and diesel averaged $6.29. The agency tied the increases to higher crude-oil prices and wider refining margins, and it expects diesel to remain above $6 a gallon in October.
Reuters reported that the EIA raised its 2026 forecast for Brent crude to about $98 a barrel as the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran constrains Middle East supply routes and global inventories. The agency expects conditions to ease gradually in 2027, but its forecast still places diesel near $4.50 a gallon on average next year.
A tax holiday would shift a transportation-funding problem
Federal fuel taxes feed the Highway Trust Fund, which supports road, bridge and transit programs. FHWA data show that motor-fuel taxes produced about $30 billion of the fund’s $41 billion in revenue in 2024.
Suspending the levy would therefore create a second question: whether Congress would accept lower trust-fund receipts or replace the lost money from the Treasury’s general fund. Lawmakers have used general-fund transfers to shore up transportation spending before, but doing so moves the cost from motorists at the pump to the broader federal budget.
The bottom line
A federal gasoline-tax pause could produce visible relief quickly if Congress approved it and the full reduction reached consumers. For a typical fill-up, however, the savings would be measured in a few dollars—not tens of dollars.
For now, Trump has announced consideration, not a completed policy. The next meaningful development would be a specific White House proposal or congressional action defining how long the holiday would last, whether diesel is included and how transportation programs would be funded.
