How many times has trump said gas is $1.98
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Executive summary
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that gasoline “hit $1.98” or is “down to $1.98” in some states; the reporting provided does not offer a single definitive tally but documents multiple distinct instances and concludes he made the claim at least several times in April and May 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Independent trackers and fact-checkers found no evidence of $1.98 pump prices for motorists and identified likely alternative sources for the figure, such as wholesale RBOB futures, which briefly traded near $1.98 in April [1] [4] [3] [5].
1. Repeated public claims mapped to specific dates
News outlets and fact‑checkers recorded Trump asserting the $1.98 figure on multiple occasions in mid‑ to late‑April and again into early May 2025: he said “You have gasoline that hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states” on April 17 (reported by PolitiFact and other outlets) and repeated the line at a White House event on April 22, with additional iterations captured in later interviews and a Truth Social post in early May [1] [6] [7] [2].
2. Counting the instances: evidence shows at least several repetitions, not a single isolated remark
The assembled reporting does not produce a single, authoritative count, but multiple outlets found the claim appeared “twice in recent days” during one reporting period (PolitiFact) and “at least three times in the past week” in another tally (Rolling Stone citing CNN), while FactCheck.org and CNBC describe the claim as having been repeated “several” times since mid‑April — together these reports support a conservative conclusion that Trump made the $1.98 claim at least five distinct times in public remarks and social posts across April–May 2025 [1] [2] [3] [7].
3. Why a precise tally is elusive and how outlets reached their conclusions
A single definitive number is elusive because coverage aggregates separate events (press remarks, interviews, Truth Social posts) reported across different days and outlets without a centralized log; fact‑checkers flagged multiple discrete moments but stopped short of producing an exhaustive, minute‑by‑minute count, instead characterizing the behavior as repeated or multiple times [1] [3] [2]. Where reporters did identify examples, they cited April 17 and April 22 remarks plus follow‑up posts and interviews in late April and early May [1] [6] [7] [2].
4. Context, counterclaims and the likely source of the $1.98 number
Fact‑checkers and energy markets analysts explain that no retail station network or statewide average matched $1.98 — tracking services like GasBuddy and AAA showed national and state pump averages well above $2.60–$3.18 during the weeks in question, and GasBuddy found no station selling gasoline for $1.98 [4] [1] [7]. Reporting points to wholesale RBOB gasoline futures briefly trading near $1.98 in late April as the probable origin of the claim — a wholesale contract price that does not equal what consumers pay at pumps after blending, distribution and retail margins [5] [3] [7]. The White House did not supply documentation for retail $1.98 prices when asked, and analysts credited international production changes and market factors — not a U.S. drilling surge attributable to administration policy — for short‑term wholesale softness [3] [1].
5. Bottom line and the limits of the public record
The public record in these reports supports a firm statement that Trump repeatedly claimed gas was $1.98 in some places during April–May 2025 and that fact‑checkers found those claims false for retail pump prices [1] [6] [7]. The reporting allows a conservative, evidence‑based tally of “at least five” documented public occurrences spanning April 17 through early May, but it does not provide an exhaustive count of every utterance across every platform, so a definitive total beyond “multiple” or “repeated” cannot be substantiated from the materials cited [1] [2] [3].