The average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gas hit $4.37 on Sunday morning. At the same time, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, dismissed polls showing Americans feel negatively about the economy. The figures set two accounts side by side: the price drivers see at the pump, and an economic story an administration official says he doesn’t believe.
The cost people can see
AAA reported the $4.37 national average Sunday morning. Gas prices have stayed above $4 during the Iran war, which has affected prices as the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, remains closed amid the conflict. The war is one of the political challenges Republicans face ahead of the midterms, alongside tariffs.
The polling numbers also show broad dissatisfaction with President Trump’s economic handling. A Quinnipiac University poll found 62 percent of respondents opposed it. In an Associated Press/NORC Research Center survey, 65 percent said the president’s policies were behind high prices, more than any other economic drivers identified in the survey.
More than half of respondents in that AP/NORC survey said the national economy and the United States overall had been worse off since the president returned to the White House. Decision Desk HQ’s polling average put Trump’s overall approval rating at 38.5 percent on Sunday morning. These figures track public opinion, not household spending. Hassett used that distinction to challenge the polls.
The official account
Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hassett said he didn’t believe recent polls showing Americans felt negatively about the economy. He told host Jake Tapper: “Ahead of an election cycle, the fact that there’s, you know, possibly partisan pollsters telling us that the people are really really depressed, it’s a classic Democrat move, and I just don’t buy it.”
Hassett argued that consumer spending data didn’t support the survey findings. “Because if it were true, if the polls were any value for thinking about what’s going on with consumers, then we should look at the consumption data and say, ‘Geez, yeah, that’s right. People aren’t spending.’ But, in fact, the retailers are doing well.” His case rests on retailers doing well as a measure of consumer activity; the account gives no spending figures to compare with the polls.
That leaves the public’s reported experience and the official’s preferred yardstick in direct conflict. A gas-price average is concrete, while polling records what respondents say about the economy and the president’s policies. Hassett rejected the latter as potentially partisan, but the account offers no evidence that the polls were partisan.
Midterm arithmetic, no grassroots response
The coming midterms frame the dispute. Hassett himself invoked an election cycle while accusing pollsters of a partisan move, and the article identifies the Iran war and tariffs as political challenges for Republicans. The polling figures, meanwhile, register opposition to the president’s economic handling and concern about prices. An election or a poll doesn’t change the reported gas average on Sunday morning.
The account describes officials, retailers, pollsters and survey respondents. It reports no mutual-aid effort, direct action or community organizing in response to prices. It also offers no legislative remedy or promise that a change in polling will alter the forces shaping costs. What it shows is an official dismissing public judgments while the stated price at the pump remains above $4 during the war. The numbers may be argued over on television. The price is still there.