Fact check: Breaking down Trump’s rosy comparison to gas prices under Biden

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Trying to put a happy spin on the high gas prices that are causing Republicans major problems in the midterm election campaign, President Donald Trump told his supporters at an Ohio rally on Monday to remember something.

“Remember, your prices – your gas prices – are lower than when Biden was president,” Trump said. “And he didn’t do anything about Iran.”

We’ll leave aside his claim about Iran. His claim about gas prices, which he has repeated multiple times in the last month, is only true about a small fraction of Joe Biden’s presidency.

The national average gas price on Monday was about $4.36 per gallon, according to AAA . The national average was higher than that on only 76 of Biden’s 1,460 full days as president. In other words, average US gas prices were lower during about 95% of Biden’s presidency than they were on Monday.

The national average on the day Trump returned to office, January 20, 2025, was about $3.12 per gallon. The national averages on both Monday and Tuesday, when it was about $4.34 per gallon, were about 39% higher than that.

You have to go all the way back to 2022 to find any of the 76 days under Biden in which the national average exceeded its Monday level or any of the 77 days in which it exceeded its Tuesday level. All of them occurred in May, June or July of 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of that year sent gas prices spiking around the world .

Trump could have accurately pointed out that the peak national average under Biden, about $5.02 per gallon on June 14, 2022, was considerably higher than this week’s averages. But the last time under Biden that the national average exceeded even Tuesday’s level was July 25, 2022 – almost exactly two-and-a-half years before Trump returned to office. And, of course, Biden could accurately note that the peak during his tenure was caused largely by a foreign war he opposed, while the peak under Trump came largely because of a war he chose to start.

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Trump has made his claims that “our gasoline prices are lower than Biden” about the US as a whole, not just the state he was speaking from on Monday, but the story is similar if you look at Ohio in particular. The state average gas price was lower during about 90% of Biden’s term than it was on Monday (about $3.87 per gallon) or Tuesday (about $3.85 per gallon); the Monday and Tuesday figures were about 25% higher and about 24% higher than the state average on Trump’s inauguration day, about $3.10. The last time under Biden that the Ohio average was higher than its Tuesday level was November 8, 2022, more than 26 full months before Trump returned to office.

Trump tried similar spin about gas prices in June of this year, when the national average was about $4.16 per gallon. He has returned to it regularly as the November 3 midterms have approached.

“Well, they’re actually lower than Biden, and he didn’t get rid of a nuclear weapon from Iran,” he said – though there is no indication Iran actually had a nuclear weapon – in an Ohio television interview on October 3. “Think of it, gasoline’s lower than it was with Biden, and we knocked the hell out of a country that was gonna try and kill us, probably,” he said in a Texas speech on October 1. “Having stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” he said , questionably, at the White House on September 30, “our gasoline prices are lower than Biden.”

In the Monday speech in Ohio, Trump also reprised another favorite campaign line about inflation – a lie that, aside from oil and gas prices, “your other prices have all come down” since Biden’s presidency. This is not even close to true.

Average consumer prices were up a seasonally adjusted 4.8% between January 2025 and August 2026, the most recent available Consumer Price Index figures show, and far more items had gotten more expensive since Trump returned to office than had gotten cheaper. Categories with increases included food (up 4.4%), shelter (up 5%), medical care services (up 5.3%) and apparel (up 4.6%).

You can check for yourself in this searchable graphic. The September 2026 figures will be released Wednesday morning.

CNN’s Matt Stiles contributed to this article.

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为了给共和党在中期选举竞选中面临的高油价问题带来一些积极影响，唐纳德·特朗普总统周一在俄亥俄州的一次集会上告诉他的支持者们要记住一件事。

“记住，你们的物价——你们的汽油价格——比拜登当总统时还要低，”特朗普说。“而且他对伊朗问题什么也没做。”

我们暂且不谈他对伊朗的说法。至于他过去一个月里多次重复的关于汽油价格的说法，也只适用于乔·拜登总统任期内的一小部分时期。

据美国汽车协会（AAA）的数据显示，周一全美平均汽油价格约为每加仑4.36美元。在拜登担任总统的1460个完整工作日中，只有76天的全国平均汽油价格高于周一的水平。换句话说，拜登执政期间，约95%的时间里，美国平均汽油价格都低于周一的水平。

2025年1月20日，特朗普重返总统职位当天，全国平均油价约为每加仑3.12美元。周一和周二的全国平均油价约为每加仑4.34美元，比这一价格高出约39%。

要找到拜登执政期间全国平均油价超过周一水平的76天，或超过周二水平的77天，就必须追溯到2022年。所有这些情况都发生在2022年的5月、6月或7月，也就是俄罗斯在当年2月全面入侵乌克兰之后，导致全球油价飙升。

特朗普本可以准确地指出，拜登执政期间全国平均油价峰值出现在2022年6月14日，约为每加仑5.02美元，远高于本周的平均水平。但拜登执政期间，全国平均油价上一次超过周二的水平是在2022年7月25日——几乎正好是特朗普重返总统宝座的两年半前。当然，拜登也可以准确地指出，他执政期间的油价峰值主要是由于他反对的一场对外战争造成的，而特朗普执政期间的油价峰值则主要是由于他选择发动的一场战争造成的。

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特朗普声称“我们的汽油价格比拜登执政时期低”，他指的是全美范围内的价格，而不仅仅是他周一发表讲话的那个州。但如果你具体看一下俄亥俄州，情况也类似。在拜登执政期间，该州约90%的时间里，平均汽油价格都低于周一（约3.87美元/加仑）或周二（约3.85美元/加仑）的价格；而周一和周二的价格分别比特朗普就职当天（约3.10美元/加仑）的州平均价格高出约25%和24%。拜登执政期间，俄亥俄州平均汽油价格上一次高于周二的价格是在2022年11月8日，比特朗普重返总统职位早了整整26个月。

今年6月，当全国平均油价约为每加仑4.16美元时，特朗普就曾试图用类似的言论来攻击汽油价格。随着11月3日中期选举的临近，他又开始频繁地重复这一论调。

“嗯，实际上油价比拜登时期低，而且他也没阻止伊朗拥有核武器，”他在10月3日接受俄亥俄州电视台采访时说道——尽管没有任何迹象表明伊朗当时真的拥有核武器。“想想看，现在的汽油价格比拜登执政时期低，而且我们还狠狠打击了一个差点要杀了我们的国家，”他在10月1日于德克萨斯州发表的演讲中说道。“阻止伊朗拥有核武器，”他在9月30日于白宫发表的这番言论令人质疑，“我们的汽油价格比拜登时期低。”

在周一于俄亥俄州的演讲中，特朗普再次老调重弹，重复了他竞选时惯用的关于通货膨胀的论调——他谎称，除了石油和天然气价格之外，自拜登执政以来，“其他所有物价都下降了”。这完全是无稽之谈。

根据最新可得的消费者价格指数数据显示，2025年1月至2026年8月期间，经季节性调整后的平均消费者价格上涨了4.8%。自特朗普重返总统职位以来，价格上涨的商品种类远多于价格下降的商品种类。价格上涨的类别包括食品（上涨4.4%）、住房（上涨5%）、医疗保健服务（上涨5.3%）和服装（上涨4.6%）。

您可以通过这张可搜索的图表自行查看。2026年9月的数据将于周三上午发布。

CNN的马特·斯泰尔斯对本文亦有贡献。