USJAN 29, 2026
Trump Fact-Checked On Gas Prices After Iowa Audience Member Interrupts Speech
Advertisement
Donald Trump was hit with a real-time fact-check on gas prices on Tuesday after an audience member interrupted his Iowa speech.
The president claimed that the average price of gas in the state was $1.95 or $1.85 per gallon, but that claim was immediately challenged.
As per CNN reporter Steve Contorno, who was covering Trump’s speech, an audience member shouted, “No, $2.63,” in response to Trump’s claim.
Highlights
- Donald Trump claimed Iowa gas prices were $1.85-$1.95 per gallon, but an audience member and data refuted this with prices around $2.55-$2.69.
- AAA and GasBuddy data showed only a few Iowa stations had gas below $2, contradicting Trump's significantly lower price claims.
- Trump said inflation was solved and prices were dropping, but Consumer Price Index data showed food and grocery prices rising in late 2025.
Donald Trump was fact-checked on Iowa gas prices
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
According to AAA, the average price for gas in Iowa is $2.55 as of Thursday, January 29, and while that is among the cheapest in the U.S., it is still significantly higher than Trump’s claim.
Contorno also noted that the gas station outside Tuesday’s venue in Clive, a suburb in Des Moines, was selling gas for $2.69 per gallon.
GasBuddy, which tracks the cheapest fuel in real-time, on Tuesday found only four gas stations in Iowa selling gas for less than $2 per gallon.
Those four stations, out of the 2,036 GasBuddy tracks in Iowa, all had prices of $1.97.
Image credits: AAA
Also on Tuesday, Trump claimed that Democrats were no longer focusing on affordability in an interview with Fox News.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale rubbished those claims in a breakdown on X, writing, “President Trump is trying to concoct an alternative reality on affordability, piling lie upon lie.”
“You know, inflation we’ve solved; it’s done,” Trump said on The Will Caine Show. “We have it good where prices are coming way down.
“They were just saying, in Iowa, the fuel is $1.95. Did you hear that? Somebody said $1.85. But it was $3.50, $4.50 just a year ago, a year-and-a-half ago,” he added.
Image credits: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
“You look at eggs, you look at groceries, it’s all down. Everything’s come down. Do you notice they don’t mention affordability anymore?”
While the prices of eggs have decreased under Trump, overall, products have become more expensive.
Figures from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers show that prices on average were roughly 2.65% higher in December 2025 than in December 2024.
Grocery prices also increased about 0.7% between November and December last year, making it the highest month-to-month jump in three years.
Inflation has not been solved, contrary to Trump’s claim
Image credits: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
CPI figures put the average 12-month increase for food in December at 3.1%.
So, while Trump claimed that inflation was “solved,” figures from the CPI also show that prices were still higher in December 2025 than a year earlier.
Affordability has hit the headlines less recently due to the extensive immigration crackdown in Minnesota and the killing of two U.S. citizens by ICE.
However, the issue remains key to Democrats who have continued to prioritize the issue ahead of the November midterm elections.
Examples of lawmakers continuing to push the issue include New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The president touched on the economy, inflation, immigration, trade, and America’s global standing during his speech, but most of the points proved to be untrue.
He made a series of false claims regarding inflation, with one being that “inflation has stopped,” similar to the incorrect claim he made on Tuesday.
Trump made bold and “mathematically impossible” claims about the price of prescription drugs.
He claimed that prices had been slashed by as much as 600%, which would essentially mean Americans were being paid to buy their own prescriptions.
As well as claiming grocery prices had plummeted, which figures showed to be false, Trump claimed that the price of gasoline was lower.
