Trump: Energy Secretary Wright 'totally wrong' on delayed return to $3 gas

President Donald Trump pushed back Monday on his own energy secretary's claim that a return to $3-a-gallon gas will not come through the end of the year.

"No, I think he’s wrong on that, totally wrong," Trump told The Hill on Monday, when asked about Energy Secretary's Christopher Wright's interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

Trump remains steadfast in his conviction that gas prices in America are going to drop precipitously "as soon as this ends," referring to the oil blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, echoing oft-repeated vows for those concerned that oil prices in America might actually return all the way up to Biden administration levels.

"The blockade is very powerful, very strong," Trump added to The Hill, pointing at Iran's obstruction effort. "They lose $500 million a day with the blockade up. We control it. They don’t control it."

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Wright's comments were not all that unaligned with Trump's position, but Wright was a bit less convicted on prices on when gas might drop below $3 again.

"I don't know, that could happen later this year, that might not happen until next year, but prices have likely peaked and they will start going down," Wright told CNN's Jake Tapper, who asked further that gas "might not be under $3 a gallon until 2027?"

"Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you will see prices go down," Wright added. "Prices across the board on energy prices will go down."

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"Under $3 a gallon is pretty tremendous — in inflation-adjusted terms," Wright added to Tapper. "We had that in the Trump administration, but we hadn't seen that in inflation-adjusted terms for quite a long time. We will get back there, for sure."

Fuel prices in America on Monday are at an average of $4.04, according to AAA.

The highest average prices come in the coastal states, the only places where gas is over $4, while the midwest states have the lowest averages in the low-to-mid 3s.

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Trump had long warned that the rise in American gas prices at the pump was a transitory inflation issue on the expectation that global oil supply was strained due to Iran's retaliatory choking off of oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have also noted for weeks that the U.S. is a net exporter of oil, has plenty of supply, with only a fraction of oil from the Middle East. So when local gas stations raised prices under the fear of future supply shortages elsewhere around the globe — potential "bad actors," according to Bessent — they were not only guessing, but expecting something that would never come, they argued.

"We'll be looking at Treasury to try to keep the retail gas stations honest — that you did this on the way up, better be doing this on the way down," Bessent told the CNBC Invest in America Forum last week. "And I am sure the president will call out anyone who's a bad actor."

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What went up, must now come down, Bessent told the CNBC forum host Wednesday when asked if the above was a warning.

"I'm sure that," Bessent said with a calculated pause, "everyone will be a good actor."