Jun 3, 2026
Thanks to the Iran war, American car owners have been struggling to keep up with skyrocketing gas prices, and President Trump doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to help them.
“I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,” Trump said about the negotiations in a recent interview with CNBC. “Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring.”
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This isn’t the first time Trump has dismissed concerns over the impact of oil price hikes on Americans’ budgets. In May, the president said he didn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation” at all when negotiating with Iran, despite rising financial and geopolitical anxiety in the U.S.
A few weeks later and it seems he hasn’t changed his tune. In fact, Trump believes “people are willing to pay a little bit more” at the pump to ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, something he’s expressed several times in the past.
Here’s what to know about what could happen to gas prices in the near future, and how to protect your budget.
No relief until 2027
Despite the recent breakdown in negotiations, Trump says he expects the Iran war to be over soon.
“It’ll happen very quickly, and as soon as that happens, gasoline will get down to $1.85, like it was in Iowa three months ago,” said Trump during a call with CNBC’s Eamon Javers.
Trump has been saying the war is close to ending since mid-March, without much to back it up. But even if the war does end soon, gas prices will take a while to go down.
As of June 1, U.S. crude oil prices were at $92.16 per barrel, NBC News reports. Prices have been volatile since the start of the war, skyrocketing from between $60 and $70 per barrel to more than $100 per barrel when the Strait of Hormuz closed near the end of February. Meanwhile, prices have been fluctuating significantly with every new report on the state of the Iran war.
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Gas prices tend to shoot up quickly when oil prices go up, but slowly fall when oil prices recover — making it even harder for consumers at the pump.
If the Strait of Hormuz were to reopen permanently, Patrick De Haan, Head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, says gas prices would eventually go down but wouldn’t return to pre-war levels until at least 2027. Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, also said gas prices under $3 a gallon “might not happen until next year.”
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How to spend less on gas
As the war in Iran remains ongoing, Americans are spending an average of $706 more per year on gas. If you’re looking for a way to spend less at the pump, there are a few things you can do.
For starters, switching to an electric vehicle would eliminate your dependence on gas, while a hybrid vehicle would cut your gas intake down significantly. Electricity prices are less volatile, making it easier to know how much you’ll spend on powering your vehicle each month.
On the flip side, electric vehicles are generally more expensive upfront compared to traditional vehicles. If a new car isn’t in your budget, you might consider switching to public transportation or purchasing a bike for short, local trips.
If you don’t live in a place where public transportation or biking is possible, carpooling when you can might be your best bet. Grouping your trips together — for example, doing multiple errands in an area at once instead of stringing them out into multiple trips — can also help.
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Kit Pulliam is a DC-based financial journalist with over five years of experience writing, editing, and fact-checking financial content.
