The national average price for a gallon of regular gas continued to drop on Monday, even after the tit-for-tat military strikes between Iran and the United States occurred in recent days. Gas prices dropped nearly seven cents from a week ago to $3.86 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA. It is the lowest price for a gallon of regular gas since March 19, when it was $3.88 per gallon.
Gas prices have steadily decreased since May 21 after a record high for 2026 was set at $4.564 per gallon, the highest national average price for a gallon of regular gas at any point during either term of President Donald Trump. Except for last week, when fuel costs increased by the slightest of margins, going from $3.926 per gallon on Tuesday to Wednesday’s price of $3.928 per gallon, gas prices have dropped for five consecutive weeks.
However, after pretty substantial decreases at the pumps in recent weeks, the pace of those decreases has slowed. Monday’s price was essentially the same as Sunday’s national average. Over the last week, the average cost of a gallon of regular gas dropped by only about seven cents per gallon. Seven days ago, gas was $3.929 per gallon. A month ago, the average price for regular gas in the nation was $4.391 per gallon, marking a 53-cent drop in fuel costs over the past 30 days.
The current decrease at the pumps, however, was not good enough for Trump. Last week, the president blasted oil companies for allegedly price gouging and inflating gas prices. Trump suggested, without any explanation, that the national average price for regular gas should be approximately $2.26 per gallon. Trump made the comments during a press conference at the Oval Office on Wednesday.
“We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump, and we’re higher than that,” said Trump. “And we are doing a big investigation on it, yeah. They’re not reducing the prices commensurate with … what’s happening.”
He singled out the country’s largest oil and gas companies for taking advantage of consumer pricing because of Operation Epic Fury during the spring.
“So it’s Exxon Mobil, it’s Chevron, it’s Shell, it’s BP, it’s a lot of them,” Trump said. “The gasoline or the oil prices have come down so much, and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be.”
Gas prices have varied considerably throughout 2026, with fuel costs setting both a five-year low and a four-year high in a matter of months. The national average price for a gallon of regular gas dropped to $2.79 on Jan. 12, 2026. This was the lowest national average gas price since 2021. Severe winter weather across the country began causing gas prices to rise slightly in late January, continuing to rise into the $2.90 range in February.
Prices began to soar as the military operation commenced on Feb. 28, ultimately reaching the aforementioned high of $4.564 per gallon. Nearly four months later, gas prices dropped below the $4-per-gallon threshold on June 19 for the first time since the end of March. Significant fluctuations in fuel costs could continue in 2026.
However, if one thing is certain about U.S. gas prices in 2026, it is that nothing is certain. The inconsistency is the only consistent thing about the gas prices market. The only thing that has remained constant over the last few years is that prices vary greatly by region. The states with the highest gas prices are on the West Coast, whereas the states with the lowest gas prices are located in the Midwest and South.
Hawaii is now the state with the highest gas prices in the country, overtaking California for that dubious distinction. Regular gas in the Aloha State on Monday averaged $5.499 per gallon. California is next with a statewide average price slightly lower than Hawaii’s at $5.455 per gallon. Washington state follows this with a statewide average of $5.189 per gallon. Next is Alaska with a statewide average price of $4.855 per gallon, followed by Oregon at $4.708 per gallon.
Indiana has the lowest statewide average gas price in the country at $3.216 per gallon. This is followed by Texas at $3.298 per gallon. Oklahoma, which was once consistently the state with the lowest gas prices in the nation, fell to third in that category, with an average price of $3.351 per gallon. Tennessee follows with an average price of $3.38 per gallon, and then Kentucky with a statewide average of $3.455 per gallon.
