Stephanie Ruhle pushes back on Trump gas price claim

MS NOW host Stephanie Ruhle challenged President Donald Trump’s comments on U.S. gas prices on June 10, after Trump told reporters in New York that fuel costs were “not very high, relatively speaking.” The exchange landed as American drivers were paying about $4.15 to $4.16 a gallon nationally and as the Iran war kept pressure on global oil supplies.

The immediate issue for households is simple: even after a recent drop, gasoline remains far above where it was a year ago and above where it stood when Joe Biden left office. The political issue is sharper, because Trump has framed current prices against Biden-era peaks while critics, including Ruhle, argue that comparison skips the day-to-day reality facing drivers now.

The Full Story

Trump made the remark earlier this week when asked about fuel prices and the strain they are placing on Americans. According to the accounts provided, he said, “If you notice, the price is not very high, relatively speaking. I mean, it’s lower than during the Biden administration.” He also argued that prices were lower during a military conflict than they had been under Biden.

Ruhle’s response was not that Trump’s comparison was entirely false. Her point was that it left out the broader picture. She said prices did climb under Biden, especially around the 2022 spike tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the national average reached about $5.07 per gallon according to MS NOW’s account. But she added that Americans were angry then for the same reason many are frustrated now: basic costs were eating into household budgets.

The numbers show why the dispute matters. USA Today reported that the average price for regular gasoline was $4.15 on June 10, down from $4.26 a week earlier and $4.52 a month earlier, but up from $3.12 at the same point last year. CNN’s fact check put the national average at $4.16 and said it was higher than the average on 1,334 of Biden’s 1,460 full days in office.

The pressure traces back to oil supply. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route, has been disrupted by the Iran war, limiting global supply and pushing gasoline higher. USA Today and AOL reported that regular gasoline costs were up nearly 40% since the conflict began, with monthly increases of 21.2% in March, 5.4% in April and 7% in May, according to Labor Department data cited in the source material.

Who's Involved

Stephanie Ruhle is the MS NOW host who directly challenged Trump’s framing. Her role matters because she connected the political messaging to the cost-of-living issue voters have been focused on since the 2024 election.

Donald Trump is the president whose comments started the latest round of scrutiny. He has argued that current prices should be judged against Biden-era highs and against the administration’s stated goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

AAA provided the gas price data used across the reports. The USA Today breakdown cited AAA’s June 10 national average and showed how prices had moved over the week, month and year.

By the Numbers

The current gas price debate is not just about one presidential quote. It is about how Americans experience a sudden jump in a cost they see every time they fill up.

• $4.15 to $4.16: the national average for regular gasoline around June 10, based on AAA figures cited by multiple sources.
• $3.12: the average one year earlier, and also the figure cited for when Biden left office in January 2025.
• 60%: the share of Americans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll who disapproved of U.S. military strikes against Iran, according to USA Today and IndexBox.
• 59%: the share of poll respondents who expected gas prices to get worse over the next year because of the war.
• 4.2%: annual inflation in May, according to Consumer Price Index figures cited by USA Today, AOL and IndexBox.
• $117.60: the crude oil price hit in April, before sitting at $90.30 on the afternoon of June 10, according to USA Today and AOL.

What This Means

For U.S. households, the difference between $3.12 and roughly $4.15 a gallon is not abstract. It can change commuting costs, delivery costs and family budgets, especially for people who cannot work from home or rely on long daily drives.

The political risk for Trump is that his message asks voters to compare today’s prices with the worst moment of Biden’s presidency, while many drivers compare today’s prices with what they paid last year or earlier this year. That is why Ruhle’s critique landed on context: a technically defensible comparison can still miss what families feel at the pump.

The Iran war is the connecting thread between foreign policy and the checkout-line economy. When oil routes are disrupted, energy costs can move into groceries, air travel and other everyday expenses. The Guardian reported that Moody’s Analytics estimated the war and higher energy prices had cost American households about $100 billion.

What to Expect

The Federal Reserve meeting scheduled for next week is the next confirmed economic marker in the source material. The Guardian reported that the May inflation report was expected to help shape whether the Fed changes rates, with inflation elevated and the labor market described as relatively strong.

Gas prices had eased from the previous month in the June 10 figures, but the sources also show why drivers are still watching the pump closely: prices remain sharply higher than last year, and a majority in the Reuters/Ipsos poll expected the war to push them higher over the next year.