Eric Trump is facing questions after claiming he spent more than $100 on gas for his car this month.
Former President Donald Trump’s son said during an interview on Fox News: ‘It cost me $130 to fill up my SUV two days ago. People can’t afford to live anymore.’
His comment sparked skepticism among Americans on the social media site X. Users wondered why a tank of gas cost him so much.
Gasoline prices have fallen this year. A gallon of regular gasoline now costs $3.26. That’s down from the national average of $3.83 this time last year.
“What kind of SUV does he drive? Mine cost me about $55 at Costco gas,” Washington, D.C. attorney Bradley P. Moss wrote on X.
Eric Trump faces questions after claiming he spent more than $100 on gas for his car this month
The businessman lives in Florida, where a gallon of regular gasoline costs $3.17, according to AAA data as of Sept. 10.
According to Cars.com, a typical SUV holds between 15 and 25 gallons of gas.
Eric Trump was photographed in 2023 getting into a Cadillac Escalade, which has a fuel tank capacity of about 24 gallons. It is unknown whether he still drives the car.
An X user assumed that Trump’s tank was in the middle of the range for SUVs and did some math.
“If he has a 20-gallon tank, he’s paying $6.50 a gallon,” said an X user from Arlington, Massachusetts.
If Trump had a 20-gallon tank and he filled it with premium gasoline (at the going rate in Florida of $3.92 per gallon), it would amount to less than $80.
“Under Donald Trump, gas was $1.89,” Eric Trump told Fox News in the interview.
Average gas prices were lower under Trump, Newsweek reported.
At the start of his presidency in 2017, the average price per gallon was $2.57.
It rose to $2.81 in 2018 under the former president, before falling to $2.69 the following year, the outlet said. In 2020, the average gas price was $2.26.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has recorded higher annual averages for gas prices during his time in office.
In 2021, the average national cost per gallon was $3.10, but the following year it rose to $4.06.
In June 2022, the highest average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $5.016.
Fuel prices, already high due to the post-pandemic recovery, soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But with gas prices higher under the current administration, X users are wondering how Eric Trump’s gas bill could have reached $130.
An X user indicated that gasoline was “cheap” during the pandemic because fewer people were driving and demand decreased as a result.
Eric Trump was photographed getting into a Cadillac Escalade on June 14, 2023
Eric Trump lives in Florida, where a gallon of regular gasoline costs $3.17, according to AAA data as of Sept. 10
According to Cars.com, a typical SUV holds between 15 and 25 gallons of gas
Brandon Wolf, national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, wrote on the social media site: “My trip to the gas station the other day cost $46.
“And contrary to the period that Trump and company keep referring to, I didn’t have to drive past refrigerated morgue trucks on the way,” he added, referring to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
Podcast host Rachel Vindman also commented on X: “I live 45 minutes away from him and 3 days ago I filled up my car with gas and I thought the pump had stopped working before it was all the way in because the charge was a few dollars less than it had been before.”
Another user chimed in: ‘I have an SUV, fill it up and have NEVER paid that much for a tank of gas. And I live in California where the average price per gallon is around $5.’
