REALITY CHECK: Last Night Trump Claimed We Are Energy Dominant, That Couldn’t Be Further From The Truth

Washington, DC – You might not know it from day one of his sham convention, but under Trump, gas prices sit at a $4.27 national average, the highest they’ve ever been this late in the year, and diesel prices sit at $5.97, a record high regardless of the time of year. On top of that, a report by Climate Power and the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that Trump’s policies have raised costs for the average American household by more than $2,000 — climbing to nearly $3,600 for families who buy coverage on the ACA marketplace — driven by higher gas prices, higher utility bills, and Trump’s tariffs. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s own oil and gas stocks have gained as much as $15.5 million from the very war he started and has refused to end — the war that’s driving those pump prices higher in the first place. While Americans dig deeper into their pockets, the President is getting richer off their pain. That’s the backdrop for the ‘$5,000 dividend’ Trump dangled last night at his billionaire’s ball, aka midterm convention. The truth is that his maybe-someday checks won’t erase two years of skyrocketing costs, and it won’t buy back the trust he’s spent two years burning through while cashing in himself.

So let’s take a look at Trump’s failed spin about his disastrous economic agenda:

TRUMP: “We’ll have American energy independence, something you know a lot about in Texas, and even we will have energy dominance.”

FACT: Diesel prices just hit a record high right before harvest season, while Americans faced the highest Labor Day gas prices on record last weekend. Far from the energy dominance Trump is claiming. 

TRUMP: “And every country that’s gone green is down the tubes, you do know that. But it caused prices to skyrocket. They used the word ‘affordability.’ Right? It’s fake. They, they are so fake, because it was them that caused the affordability, to use their word,  ‘crisis,’ and I’m bringing the prices way down, way, way down. They caused the price, but we’re fixing it. We’re fixing it.”

FACT: Clean energy is the cheapest, fastest way to get more power onto the grid. According to Brookings, transitioning to clean energy will reduce U.S. electricity prices by 20 to 80 percent by 2040.

FACT: Utility bills are up 15% nationally as of June, having spiked as much as 18% over the past year. And it’s not just energy costs; Trump’s war of choice in Iran spiked inflation above 4% for the first time in three years. 

TRUMP: “…prices right after this very important election on November 3rd will be plummeting. The war will be over very shortly after the election. They are hanging out for dear life, hoping that we lose so they can deal with dumb, weak Democrats, and they can have their nuclear bomb, but we’re not going to let that happen. So they are going to be quitting, or dropping out, or who knows what the hell, whatever it is, right after election day…”

FACT: Just yesterday, the Energy Information Administration projected that gas will remain above $4/gal through the end of the third quarter and average $3.95 in the fourth quarter of 2026. Trump’s own advisors are preparing for the possibility that Trump’s war of choice with Iran lasts all the way through the end of his term. Meaning relief is likely years away.

TRUMP: “I was in Iowa, the oil was at $1.85 a gallon for cars. There was another one, $1.95, but I saw that last one, $1.85. We were doing great.”

FACT: Despite bragging about how low gas prices were before the war, the average price for a gallon of gas in Iowa now sits at $4.14, and the national average price of gas is $4.27. 

TRUMP: “I called them all into the office. I said, ‘fellas, I hate to do this to you. We have the best records we’ve ever had, but we have a country that’s two, maybe three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon, and it’s the state sponsor of terror all over the world, considered just about the most evil country, we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.’”

FACT: Trump is singularly responsible for skyrocketing gas prices, runaway inflation, and the fact that the average American family has lost more than $3,000 since he began his disastrous second term.