“I had gasoline down to $1.85 in Iowa... I was down to, in many cases, less than $2.00 a barrel -- a gallon.”

Press gaggle at the White House ballroom construction site

The national average never came close to $2 in the weeks before the war. The Energy Information Administration's weekly survey put regular gasoline at $2.937 a gallon in the week of February 23, 2026, the last full week before the war, and between $2.867 and $2.937 in every week of that month. Two days before the war AAA reported a national average of $2.98, and the cheapest state average in the country was Oklahoma at $2.43. None of the ten cheapest state markets was under $2.

Individual stations below $2 did exist, which is the claim's best defence. In mid-December 2025 a handful of warehouse-club outlets were selling under $2, including $1.78 at a Costco in Colorado Springs and $1.84 at a Sam's Club in Midwest City, Oklahoma. Those are single sites more than two months before the war, not the "many cases" he described.