Trump Is Desperately Trying To Escape The ‘Terrible Jam’ He Created
Facing record-low approval numbers and midterm elections weeks away, the Trump administration has rolled out a pair of fuel-price fixes as gas averages $4.37 a gallon and diesel recently hit an all-time high of $6.53. The centerpiece is an executive order, signed Monday in Nebraska, temporarily allowing red-dye diesel, normally tax-exempt fuel reserved for farm and off-road use, to be burned in highway trucks through year's end.
Trade groups immediately warned members to be cautious: the National Association of Truck Stop Owners said the liability and customer risk outweigh any uncertain benefit, and truckers will likely owe the deferred taxes eventually anyway. Economist Michael Noel of Texas Tech called the move unlikely to amount to much, arguing gas-tax moratoriums are an inefficient way to deliver relief since retailers and wholesalers capture part of the savings.
Trump also floated suspending the federal 18.4-cent gasoline tax this week, saying only that he was 'thinking about that.' Noel and other analysts note the underlying issue is a global supply shock tied to the war in Iran, which domestic tax tweaks do not address.
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