With Americans increasingly incensed over the steadily climbing cost of refueling their vehicles, the US Energy secretary says he's "open to all ideas" to bring down the price at the pump, to include suspending the federal gas tax.
This is bad, right? pic.twitter.com/Sw3UGcW31q
— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) May 11, 2026“All measures that can be taken to lower the price of at the pump and lower the prices for Americans, this administration is in support of,” Chris Wright told Meet the Press on Sunday. "We’re releasing oil from our strategic petroleum reserves and getting 30 other nations to do that in coordination with us...We revised the EPA regulations on summer gasoline blend to make it easier for American refineries to produce more gasoline."
"I think it's a great idea," said President Trump, "for a period of time."
"We're going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in."
Suspending the tax may only trigger more resentment about the administration's war of choice: Once they learn the tax only accounts for 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.3 cents for diesel, Americans may view the limp gesture as merely adding insult to injury. In a recent poll, 81% of respondents said gas prices are straining their household finances. It's a bipartisan feeling: 79% of Republicans felt that way. With the midterms now less than six months away, the political impact could be significant -- 81% of independents say Trump is to blame to some extent.
Americans expressing their frustration with gas prices pic.twitter.com/Lm6ofNS9qf
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) May 9, 2026The administration has been flailing in its messaging on gas prices. In mid-March -- two weeks after Trump teamed up with Israel to launch a war on Iran -- Wright told Meet the Press that Americans could expect "a few more weeks" of elevated prices, with a "very good chance" they would drop under $3 by summer. In mid-April, Wright told CNN that gas may not be below $3 "until next year." Around the same time, however, Trump told Maria Bartiromo that "gasoline is coming down very soon and very big." Now, 10 weeks into the war, and with summer just around the bend, the national average gas price is $4.52; diesel is $5.65. That's about a 50% increase since the US-Israeli war on Iran began.
🚨 TRUMP: “Gas prices are WAY down” https://t.co/KGnWO4WnYz pic.twitter.com/uhL18QxZXd
— NoLimit (@NoLimitGains) May 10, 2026Prudently refusing to dig himself any deeper on Sunday, Wright told Meet the Press, "I can’t make any predictions about oil prices or gasoline prices...when we start to get free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, energy prices will come down.” With Trump rejecting the latest counter-offer from Iran, there's little reason to think that free flow will be happening anytime soon.
For most Americans, state fuel taxes are a bigger factor than the federal tax -- particularly in those states where leftists dominate government. California's gas tax is the worst, at 70.9 cents per gallon, followed by Illinois (66.4 cents) and Washington (59 cents).
State gas taxes vary widely: California's 70.9-cent-per-gallon tax is a big reason why the average gas price there is $6.15 (Tax Foundation graphic)Some states have reduced or suspended their fuel taxes to buffer their residents from that effect of the Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran. Last week, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun extended a suspension of the state sales tax on gas, and paused the gas tax too. Together, that cuts 59.3 cents per gallon from the pump price. In March, Georgia suspended its 33-cent tax, but that suspension ends on May 18, and the legislature is out of session. Utah trimmed its tax by 6 cents -- but that relief doesn't take effect until July 1. Earlier this month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed a federal tax suspension, but (shocker!) doesn't want to do anything with her state's 52.4-cent tax, which is the sixth-highest in the country.
Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 10:55This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist.
On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts.
The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true.
In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.
“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.”
In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism.
One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds.
These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.
It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.
Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.
Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants.
Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises.
Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.
Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs.
A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.
That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.
Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land.
Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders.
The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.
This is not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns.
She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Tax-the-Rich” gown.
Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking.
The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
Tyler Durden Mon, 05/11/2026 - 10:35