Prices at the pump are down, but not to $2 a gallon

On the 2024 campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to bring gasoline prices below $2 a gallon. One year into his second term, gas prices have declined, but not as much as he promised. 

In the second week of January 2026, the average price per gallon nationally was $2.78, compared with $3.11 when Trump was sworn in for his second term a year earlier, according to federal data from the Energy Information Administration. 

That's a decline of about 11%. To reach the $2 threshold would require a decline of about 36%.

No state has seen its average price fall below $2, according to the American Automobile Association. The lowest average in any state in mid-January was $2.34 per gallon, in Oklahoma.

Over the past two decades, the national average price of gasoline has rarely fallen as low as $2 a gallon. Exceptions include during the Great Recession of 2008-09 and the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when consumer demand cratered.

Meanwhile, the crude oil market is global, with lots of factors playing a role in gasoline pricing. The impact of one player's actions, even if the player is the president of the United States, is limited, experts say.

A full year into his term, Trump has not managed to bring down gasoline prices nationally to $2 a gallon, though it's approaching that level in some states. We rate this promise Stalled.