Trump touts falling gas prices for holiday weekend
Gas prices are the lowest they've been in four years coming into the holiday weekend, sitting at a national average of $3.14 per gallon of unleaded, according to gas prices tracker GasBuddy.
They're down more than 8 cents from one week ago and over 37 cents from one year ago, in line with trends from earlier this year.
'Americans will spend over $500 million less on gasoline from Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, compared to last year' if prices continue on their current trajectory, according to the fuel price comparison tool.
President Donald Trump has touted falling gas prices multiple times since the start of his second term. The White House publicized lower gas prices on Memorial Day, as well, which were also the cheapest they had been since 2021.
Prices are $1.69 per gallon less than this day in 2022, when the U.S. was still climbing out of the economic quagmire of the pandemic, despite rising some in the past couple weeks while tensions escalated in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. They've fallen again with the solidification of the Israel-Iran ceasefire last week.
While major conflicts have continued or broken out around the globe, gas prices have fluctuated within an approximately 20-cent window over the past five-plus months, from $3.02, at the lowest, to a high of $3.25 in April.
The president has encouraged domestic energy production, attempting to lift certain permitting restrictions and regulatory burdens that have interfered with American oil and gas production – in part to lessen U.S. dependence on other countries.
Gas prices are highest in the West, topping out at an average $4.55 per gallon in California, and generally lowest in the South, falling to an average $2.69 per gallon in Mississippi. Midwest state gas prices peak in Illinois at an average $3.44 per gallon and Pennsylvania has the highest average price in the Northeast at an average $3.35.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Rupee to weaken after 'rare' positive news for dollar from US jobs report
By Nimesh Vora MUMBAI(Reuters) -The Indian rupee is set to decline at open on Friday after data showed the U.S. labour market remained resilient, fuelling a rally in the dollar and pushing up Treasury yields. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated an open in the 85.46 to 85.50 range, versus 85.31 in the previous session. "The 85.30 level is a major support (for USD/INR), and the U.S. jobs data just reinforces that it's unlikely to break below that level in a hurry," a currency dealer at a Mumbai-based bank. "The dollar's broad recovery and the U.S. yield move have locked in that floor for now." U.S. data on Thursday showed non-farm payrolls rose more than forecast in June, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped, highlighting ongoing labour market strength. Treasury yields climbed, lifting the dollar against major peers, while markets dialled back expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut at this month's meeting. The jobs data is a 'rare piece of good news" for the U.S. dollar, Richard Potts, economist at FX advisory firm Bondford, said. "The data reduces the likelihood of the US Fed cutting rates at the July (meeting), maintaining the rate advantage U.S. has over other major economies," he said, while noting that just days earlier, Fed Chair Jerome Powell had kept the door open to a July cut, which had weighed on the dollar. Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed U.S. President Donald Trump's spending and tax cuts bill that is estimated to add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt. "The question is how much of the bill's passage was already priced in," said Chris Weston, head of research at broker Pepperstone. Weston said the longer segment of the Treasury curve needs to be tracked for any rise in the term premium before making a call. KEY INDICATORS: ** India's market regulator bars U.S. trading company Jane Street from accessing the local securities market ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 85.58; onshore one-month forward premium at 10 paise ** Dollar index up at 97.01 ** Brent crude futures down 0.4% at $68.5 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 4.35% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors sold a net $87.2 million worth of Indian shares on July 2 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors sold a net $158.6 million worth of Indian bonds on July 2 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
12 minutes ago
- New York Post
Douglas Murray: Will NYC fall for the selfie-entitled Zohran Mamdani?
What do you do if something doesn't work? Why, surely you should double down even harder on the things that make it not work. Right? That seems to be the attitude of voters who decided that Zohran Mamdani was the candidate for them in the New York City mayoral race. There are plenty of excuses that can be made for how New York ever had this woeful candidate put before us. A self-professed 'democratic socialist.' You could point to the failure of the Democratic Party to put up viable and talented candidates. You might wonder at how Andrew Cuomo honestly thought that there was a way back for him in city politics. And you might blame the vanity of a man who even now seems unwilling to drop out of the race. Or you might wonder why the Democratic Party has decided to make the same mistake on the city level that it has made on the national level in putting forward tested but failed candidates instead of successful and talented ones. An American tale But in the end we have to face the fact that the present front-runner for mayor is the most woefully inadequate candidate possible. Promising the most woefully impossible agenda. On Mamdani's qualifications the facts speak for themselves. Mamdani may be presenting himself as the representative of struggling New Yorkers, but he himself is anything but. Privately schooled at the Bank Street school, he went on to study at Bowdoin College in Maine. From there he loafed around for a bit, trying to make it as a rapper before deciding to become a political activist. Truly a story of American struggle. He had the cushion of his parents, of course. Because while Mamdani would like to present himself as the voice of the voiceless, he is in fact the perfect megaphone for a type of entitled coastal elite. His father is a professor at Columbia University — of course. And it seems that his father's interest in colonialism, post-colonialism and decolonization has formed his son's political worldview. The political base that Mamdani junior has decided to appeal to is exactly the sort of person who thinks 'decolonization' is one of the big issues of our time. A couple of centuries after it had even the slightest impact on the lives of people in this country. But if you have been educated by people like Mamdani Sr. then you might well think that decolonization is the great issue of our time. Because there are empires and colonies everywhere these days, aren't there? Ugly racial politics Yet that is just the mood music. The real crux of Mamdani's campaign comes down to just two things. The first is the playing of overtly racial politics, bringing the most divisive approach to the forefront of his campaign. This comes not just in Mamdani's promise to tax white New Yorkers, or to pretend that it is white New Yorkers who somehow have the power these days (doubtless because they're all still running those darn colonies). It is also there in his appeal to communities based on his own ethnic and religious background. Not just the Muslim card, but the Ugandan immigrant card, the Asian card. He used this not just to appeal to New Yorkers from South and East Asia but to young, white, college-educated New Yorkers who like to fetishize and glamorize anyone who they think of as 'other.' It doesn't matter how little Mamdani has achieved in his life to date, or how impossible his promises like rent control are. Mamdani need only release a video of himself eating without a knife and fork for these grads to coo with appreciation. You might put this down to the TikTokization of our politics, where a relatively fresh-faced candidate can make a sound bite seem long-winded. This is politics for a post-sound bite generation, where someone's 'vibe' matters more than their actual platform. Still we can glimpse where Mamdani might still unravel. In recent days we had confirmation that Mamdani lacks basic accounting skills. His promise that as mayor he will use $140 million to fund socialist grocery stores is something he claimed was already accounted for. It turns out that the money he thought was available for his free-food scheme is private spending which he mistook for government spending. Still, who cares what is private and what is government when you're promising a socialist utopia? Anti-white tax scheme As for his claim that white people need to be taxed more, again this is pure 'decolonization' bunkum. All recent studies show other racial groups exceeding the earnings of white Americans in this country. In fact the two groups which nationwide exceed the earnings of white Americans are Asian Americans and, er, Indian Americans. I wouldn't put it past Mamdani to attack these groups as well in due course. After all, the only sectarian politicking which Mamdani is keener on than antisemitism is his anti-Indian sentiment. Mamdani is one of those sectarian politicians who is never happier than when accusing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being a 'war criminal.' Modi is one of the international leaders who Mamdani has said he would like to ban from coming to New York. But it isn't his grandstanding on the world stage that is his biggest drawback. Rather it is his incompetence and wishful thinking on the home front. After all, this city has been run by left-wing politicians for a long time. If you think the city is unequal, unfair and just begging for more left-wing policies, then why have these policies to date provided such terrible results? A sensible voter might conclude that it is because left-wing policies don't work. A naïve voter might be persuaded that it's because they haven't been tried enough, and conclude that what New York needs to thrive is for the rich to be chased out and everyone else to be given free stuff. There are 5 million voters in this city. The only way that Mamdani can win is if the only people who come out to vote are the minority of New Yorkers who are as delusional as he is.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump wins 'phenomenal' victory as Congress passes flagship bill
US President Donald Trump boasted of a "phenomenal victory" to cheering supporters at a rally in Iowa on Thursday after Congress narrowly passed his signature tax and spending bill, cementing his radical second-term agenda. The jubilant president kicked off America's year-long 250th birthday celebrations with a victory lap hailing the unpopular bill, which has caused deep concern within his own Republican Party -- as well as, polls show, among many Americans. Many fear that it will balloon the national debt, gut health and welfare support as well as clean energy, and supercharge Trump's migrant crackdown. "There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago," Trump told supporters in the state capital, Des Moines. "Very simply, the one, big beautiful bill would deliver the strongest border on Earth, the strongest economy on Earth, the strongest military on Earth, and ensure the United States of America will remain the strongest country anywhere on this beautiful planet of ours." The bill squeezed past a final vote earlier Thursday, 218-214, after a small group of Republican opponents in the House of Representatives finally fell in line, corralled by Speaker Mike Johnson. Trump said he would sign the bill into law on Friday, American Independence Day, adding that pilots who had carried out US strikes on Iran two weeks earlier would be in attendance. - Mass deportations, tax breaks - The legislation is the latest in a series of big wins for Trump, including a Supreme Court ruling last week that curbed lone federal judges from blocking his policies, and US air strikes that led to a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. His sprawling mega-bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday and had to return to the lower chamber for its approval of the senators' revisions. The package honors many of Trump's campaign promises: boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief. "Everything was an absolute disaster under the Biden-Harris radical regime, and we took the best effort that we could, in one big, beautiful bill, to fix as much of it as we could," Johnson said. "And I am so grateful that we got that done." But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country's fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food assistance program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch. Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their insurance coverage under the bill at 17 million. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close. While Republican moderates in the House fear the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection next year, fiscal hawks chafed over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised. Johnson had to negotiate tight margins, and could only lose a handful of lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who had earlier declared themselves open to rejecting the 869-page text. Trump spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring the president's wrath. Democrats hope public opposition to the bill will help them flip the House in the 2026 midterm election, pointing to data showing that it represents a huge redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest. "This bill, this one big, ugly bill -- this reckless Republican budget, this disgusting abomination -- is not about improving the quality of life of the American people," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. After the bill was passed, Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, said it was "not only reckless -- it's cruel." Extra spending on the military and border security will be paid in part through ending clean energy and electric vehicle subsidies -- a factor triggering a bitter public feud between Trump and former key advisor Elon Musk. bur-st/sco
