Eric Trump is facing questions after claiming he spent more than $100 filling up his car’s gas tank this month.
Former President Donald Trump’s son said during an interview on Fox News‘Two days ago it cost me $130 to fill up my truck. People can’t afford to live like this anymore.’
His comment sparked skepticism among Americans on social media site X, with users wondering why a tank of gas cost him so much.
Gasoline prices have fallen this year: a gallon of regular gasoline costs $3.26, down from the national average of $3.83 at this time last year.
“What kind of SUV do you drive? Mine cost me about $55 in gas at Costco,” wrote Bradley P. Moss, a Washington, D.C., attorney, on X.
Eric Trump faces questions after claiming he spent more than $100 filling up his car’s gas tank this month
The businessman lives in Florida, where a gallon of regular gasoline costs $3.17, according to AAA data from September 10.
A typical SUV holds between 15 and 25 gallons of gas, according to Cars.com.
Eric Trump was photographed in 2023 getting into a Cadillac Escalade, whose fuel tank has a capacity of about 24 gallons. It is not known if he still drives the vehicle.
One X user, assuming Trump’s tank was in the middle of the range for SUVs, did some math.
“If you have a 20-gallon tank, you pay $6.50 a gallon,” said one X user from Arlington, Massachusetts.
If Trump had a 20-gallon tank and filled it with premium gasoline (at the typical Florida price of $3.92 a gallon), this would amount to less than $80.
“Under Donald Trump, gas was $1.89,” Eric Trump told Fox News in an interview.
Average gasoline prices were lower under the Trump administration, Newsweek Magazine reported.
At the start of his presidency in 2017, the average price per gallon was $2.57.
In 2018, during the former president’s administration, the price rose to $2.81 and the following year it fell to $2.69, according to the outlet. In 2020, the average price of gasoline was $2.26.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has seen higher annual averages for gasoline prices during his tenure.
In 2021, the typical national cost per gallon was $3.10, which then rose to $4.06 the following year.
In June 2022, the highest average price recorded for a gallon of regular gasoline reached $5.016.
Fuel prices, already high due to the post-pandemic recovery, increased following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But even though gas prices have been higher under the current administration, X users were left wondering how Eric Trump’s gas bill could have risen to $130.
One X user noted that ‘gas was cheap’ during the pandemic because fewer people were driving, so demand decreased.
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 from Sept. 10.
A typical SUV holds between 15 and 25 gallons of gas, according to Cars.com.
Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights campaign, wrote on the social media site: ‘My trip to the gas station cost me $46 the other day.
“And unlike the time period Trump and company keep referencing, I didn’t have to navigate refrigerated morgue trucks along the way,” he added, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Podcast host Rachel Vindman also commented on X: ‘I live 45 minutes away from him and 3 days ago I filled up my car’s gas tank and thought the pump had turned off before it filled up because the cost was several dollars less than it had been.’
Another user chimed in: “I have an SUV, I fill it up with premium gas and I have NEVER paid that much for a tank of gas. And I live in California where the average price per gallon is around $5.”