Trump Endorses Congressional Suspension of 18.4¢ Federal Gasoline Tax Amid Iran War Price Shock

Presidents reaching for fuel-tax holidays in election seasons evokes John McCain’s 2008 call to drop the 18.4¢ levy and Gerald Ford’s 1975 voluntary Sunday-driving limits after the ’73–’74 Arab oil embargo; both gestures proved politically vivid but economically marginal. Today’s episode fits a century-long pattern: when chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz (now) or Suez (1956) constrict oil, Washington scrambles for short-term consumer relief even at the expense of long-term infrastructure funding. The gas tax, untouched since 1993 and already eroding in real value and by the rise of EVs, is structurally misaligned with 21st-century transport finance; suspending it accelerates that decay without addressing the strategic root—volatile global supply. In the span of 100 years this moment may be remembered less for the pennies saved at the pump and more as another signal that America’s road system can no longer rely on fossil-fuel consumption to pay its bills.