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What were average US retail gasoline prices during Donald Trump presidency 2017-2021?
Executive Summary
The materials you provided do not contain any data on US retail gasoline prices during Donald Trump’s presidency (2017–2021), so I cannot calculate or verify average prices from them; the three analyses all describe unrelated Stack Overflow discussions and explicitly lack the needed price series [1] [2] [3]. To answer your question reliably requires a time series of monthly or annual US retail gasoline prices from an authoritative source; I can compute averages once you permit me to retrieve such data or supply it directly.
1. What the original claim asks and what the supplied analyses actually say — a stark mismatch
Your original question asks for the average US retail gasoline prices for the period 2017–2021, meaning a computed average from a series of retail pump prices across that four-year span. The three analysis entries you supplied, however, do not contain any gasoline-price data; they are meta-commentary and code-discussion extracts from programming forums and explicitly state they are unrelated to gasoline pricing [1] [2] [3]. Because the supplied sources contain no numeric price series, there is no basis in these materials to derive an average or to confirm any specific price figure for the Trump administration years.
2. Why the supplied sources are insufficient and what exactly is missing
The provided documents fail on two levels: they contain no retail fuel price observations, and they offer no pointers to raw datasets or official compilations that would allow computation of means. For a valid average you need either monthly national retail gasoline price series or a dataset of state-level prices with weighting rules; neither exists in the supplied analyses. The absence of time-stamped price points, aggregation methodology, or even references to authoritative datasets means the supplied corpus cannot support the factual claim about average prices. The three supplied analyses explicitly indicate they are off-topic technical discussions and therefore do not contain the necessary empirical evidence [1] [2] [3].
3. What constitutes a proper, verifiable answer and how averages should be computed
A verifiable answer requires a clear definition of the metric (for example, national average regular retail gasoline price) and the frequency for averaging (monthly averages averaged across calendar years, or an annual average). Once the metric and frequency are defined, the calculation is straightforward: aggregate the chosen series over the period 2017–2021 and compute the arithmetic mean, optionally weighting by consumption if a consumption-weighted average is desired. Because the supplied materials provide none of these elements, no mathematically defensible average can be produced from the current inputs. Any subsequent computation must cite the raw price series used and the exact aggregation method.
4. Where authoritative data normally comes from and why those sources matter
To produce a reliable average, analysts generally use publicly available price series compiled by government or industry organizations that systematically collect retail pump prices and publish time-stamped series. Using such established sources ensures comparability across periods and transparent methodology for how prices are sampled and aggregated. The absence of links to such primary datasets in the materials you supplied is the reason the claim cannot be assessed here; without the original series or a trustworthy secondary compilation, any numeric claim about 2017–2021 averages would be unsupported by the provided evidence [1] [2] [3].
5. Practical next steps I can take and what I would need from you to proceed
I can either fetch the authoritative monthly or annual retail gasoline price series and compute the requested 2017–2021 average, or you can supply a dataset (CSV, table, or list of monthly prices) and I will compute and document the arithmetic mean and any alternate aggregations you ask for. Please confirm whether you want a simple unweighted mean of national monthly averages over 2017–2021, or a different metric (annual averages, consumption-weighted average, state-level breakdown). With that confirmation I will retrieve the series and produce a sourced, dated calculation.
6. Limitations, transparency, and the importance of sourcing when checking price claims
Because the three supplied analyses are explicitly unrelated to gasoline prices and offer no primary evidence, any attempt to state average prices without new, authoritative data would violate basic fact-checking standards; the correct journalistic practice is to withhold a numeric conclusion until proper sources are consulted [1] [2] [3]. If you authorize me to fetch data now, I will cite the exact datasets and publication dates used and present the computed averages with full transparency about methodology and possible caveats.