Everyone remembers a certain price. Maybe it’s the $1.77 you saw on a digital sign in rural Ohio during the height of the 2020 lockdowns, or perhaps it’s the $2.96 you paid right before a summer road trip in 2018. When people ask how much was gas when Trump was in office, they usually aren't looking for a math lecture. They want to know if life was actually cheaper back then and why those numbers moved the way they did.
Gas prices are weirdly emotional. They are the only commodity we buy where the price is blasted in six-foot-tall neon numbers on every street corner. You don't see that for the price of milk or 2x4s at Home Depot. Because of that, gas becomes a shorthand for how the economy is "feeling."
Let's look at the hard numbers first.
The Raw Data: Year by Year Breakdown
Honestly, the "average" price doesn't tell the whole story, but it’s a good place to start. If you took every single day Donald Trump was in the White House and averaged them out, you’d land somewhere around $2.49 per gallon.
But nobody pays the average. You pay what’s on the sign that day.
When he took the oath on January 20, 2017, the national average for a gallon of regular was roughly $2.32. It stayed relatively stable for a while, but it wasn't a flat line. By May 2018, we saw a peak of $2.96. People were starting to grumble then. Then, 2020 happened, and the bottom fell out of the world.
👉 See also: States With the Highest Car Insurance: Why You're Paying More and How to Fix It
By April 2020, the national average crashed to $1.77. In some spots in the Midwest, you could find it for under a dollar if you looked hard enough. When he left office in January 2021, the price had drifted back up to about $2.39.
So, if you look at the "start" and "finish" line, the price only moved up about 7 cents. But the journey in between was a total roller coaster.
Why Were Prices So Low in 2020?
It’s the elephant in the room. You can’t talk about gas prices during that term without talking about the pandemic.
In the spring of 2020, the world basically stopped moving. Airplanes were parked on runways. Office workers stayed in their pajamas. Commuting vanished overnight. When demand for oil disappears, but the wells are still pumping, the price craters. At one point, crude oil futures actually went into negative territory—meaning sellers were essentially paying people to take the oil off their hands because they had nowhere to store it.
That’s why you saw those sub-$2.00 prices. It wasn't necessarily a "policy win" as much as it was a global economic heart attack.
The Pre-Pandemic Reality
Before COVID-19 shifted the goalposts, gas prices were mostly hovering between $2.40 and $2.80.
Why? Because U.S. oil production was booming.
The U.S. became the world’s top producer of crude oil during this window, largely thanks to the "shale revolution." When you have a lot of supply coming from Texas, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania, it puts a ceiling on how high global prices can go. The Trump administration leaned heavily into this, pushing for deregulation and opening up federal lands for drilling. This "Energy Dominance" policy didn't overnight change the price at your local Chevron, but it created a massive cushion of supply that kept things relatively affordable for the first three years of the term.
✨ Don't miss: JPY to ARS Rate: Why the Gap is Shrinking (and What to Do)
Does a President Actually Control the Pump?
Sorta. But mostly no.
If you ask an economist, they’ll tell you the President has about as much control over the price of gas as a weather reporter has over the rain. Gas is a global commodity. If there’s a strike in France or a pipeline leak in Saudi Arabia, your local price goes up.
However, a President influences the vibe of the market.
- Leasing and Permits: Trump’s Department of the Interior made it a lot easier to get permits to drill.
- The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR): This is the giant stash of oil kept in underground salt caverns. Presidents can tap into this to cool down high prices, though it’s usually a temporary fix.
- Foreign Policy: Sanctions on countries like Iran or Venezuela can take oil off the global market, which ironically can drive prices up.
Roughly 50% to 60% of what you pay at the pump is just the cost of crude oil. Another 15% is taxes (state and federal). The rest is refining and shipping. Since the President doesn't set the global price of crude or the state tax in California, their "lever" is pretty small in the short term.
The Regional Flip-Flop
The "national average" is a bit of a lie.
If you lived in Mississippi in 2019, you might have been paying $2.10. If you were in Los Angeles at the same time, you were probably staring at $3.80.
This is because of state taxes and "boutique blends." Some states require special oxygenated fuel to cut down on smog. Since you can't just ship regular gas from Texas to a station in San Francisco without it meeting those specific requirements, West Coast prices stayed high even when the rest of the country was seeing a bargain.
The Legacy of "Cheap Gas"
There is a psychological factor here. When gas is cheap, people buy bigger trucks. They take longer vacations. They feel like they have more "mad money" in their pockets.
During the 2017-2021 period, the relatively low cost of energy acted like a silent tax cut for the American middle class. Even when prices spiked to nearly $3.00 in 2018, they were still a far cry from the $4.00+ peaks seen in the early 2010s or the massive surges we saw later in the 2020s.
Real Talk: What You Can Actually Do
Looking back at historical prices is fun for nostalgia or political debates, but it doesn't help you fill your tank today. If you want to actually save money, you have to play the game better than the guy at the next pump.
Audit your gas apps. Don't just stick to one. GasBuddy is the classic, but Upside gives you actual cash back, and sometimes Google Maps has more updated prices in real-time.
Watch the "Days of the Week" myth. People used to say Tuesday was the cheapest day. That's mostly dead now. However, gas stations often update their prices in the middle of the day. If you see a price you like on your way to work, grab it. It might be five cents higher by the time you drive home.
🔗 Read more: USD Currency to SGD: Why the Exchange Rate is Doing Something Weird Right Now
The "Top Tier" Secret. Not all gas is the same. Brands like Costco, Shell, and Mobil use "Top Tier" detergents that keep your engine cleaner. You might pay two cents more, but if it keeps your fuel injectors from clogging, you save thousands in the long run.
Check your tires. Seriously. If your tires are even slightly under-inflated, your fuel economy drops by about 3%. It’s basically like throwing a few quarters out the window every time you fill up.
If you’re trying to track how these historical trends might impact your current budget, start by logging your mileage for a week. Understanding your "personal inflation rate" is way more valuable than arguing about what the national average was five years ago.
Monitor your local prices through a dedicated app for seven days. You'll likely find a pattern where one specific station in your commute is consistently 10 cents cheaper than the others—stick with that one and ignore the noise.