‘SNL’ mocks President Trump over rising gas prices during cold weather
“Saturday Night Live” kicked off its latest cold opening with President Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) discussing Iran and rising gas prices.
Gasoline prices may not fall below $3 a gallon until next year, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a new interview, as Americans head into the summer travel season due to high energy prices.
Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on April 19 on “State of the Union” if it was “realistic” for Americans to expect gas prices to drop below $3, Wright initially answered, “I don’t know.”
“That could happen later this year,” he said. “That may not happen until next year, but prices have probably peaked and will certainly start to fall once this dispute is resolved.”
Wright said later in the interview that the price of less than $3 a gallon is “pretty amazing when you adjust for inflation.”
“We had that during the Trump administration, but we haven’t had that for a long time, adjusted for inflation,” Wright said of the $3 target. “We will definitely go back there.”
The national average gasoline price was $4.04 per gallon as of April 19, according to AAA Fuel Tracker. On February 26, two days before the Iran war began, it was $2.98.
Trump administration officials have promised to lower gas prices since the war began in February, when the United States and Israel launched a joint offensive. In response to the attack, Iran effectively shut down one of the world’s most important oil trade routes in the Strait of Hormuz. The move has blocked hundreds of tankers in the Gulf from entering and exiting the strait, disrupting global markets and sending energy prices soaring.
Wright told CNN on March 8 that the rise in oil prices won’t last long and that it’s a matter of “weeks, not months.”
The war is now in its eighth week, and the strait is a key point of contention in ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran.
This 160-mile waterway connects the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea, and is bounded on one side by the Iranian coastline. Before the war, approximately 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies passed through this narrow strait.
Kathryn Palmer is USA TODAY’s political reporter. She can be reached at the following address: kapalmer@usatoday.com And to X@Kathryn Purml. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
