What was promised
Speaking in Asheville, North Carolina on 14 August 2024, Trump gave us a figure and timeframe for cutting energy prices:
"I'm announcing today that under my leadership, the United States will commit to the ambitious goal of slashing energy and electricity prices by half, at least half."
He added: "We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months and a maximum of 18 months." He also allowed for missing it: "And if it doesn't work out, you'll say, 'Oh, well, I voted for him. I still got him down a lot.'"
He expanded on this in York, Pennsylvania five days later. Cutting "the cost of energy in half within the first 12 months of taking office" would be "a top priority", he said, adding: "We think energy costs, all of it, air conditioning, heating, all of it, including gasoline, will drop by more than 50% within the first 12 months."
So while it was stated as a goal there was a timeframe attached to it. That included petrol, heating and power. Starting from his inauguration day that means 12 months takes us to 20 January 2026 and 18 months to 20 July 2026. His broader aim of providing the world's cheapest energy is a separate post.
What's happened since
Day one. 20 January 2025 saw Trump declare an energy emergency blaming "the high energy prices that devastate Americans". He blamed this on America not producing enough energy.
Electricity went the wrong way in 2025. According to CNN as of the end of July 2025 electricity prices were up 5.5% compared to the previous year. This according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was just over double the rate of inflation. A spokesperson for the White House attributed this to Biden's "Green New Scam agenda".
The 12-month mark. As of 20 January 2026 petrol was $2.78 per gallon during the second week of January according to PolitiFact. This is a decrease from $3.11 when Trump took office. An 11% drop. If we wanted to see it cut in half we'd need it to be $1.56 per gallon which hasn't been seen since 2004. Fuel oil dropped by around 4% but natural gas saw an increase of nearly 9% and electricity by nearly 7%. PolitiFact labelled the claim as "Stalled". The energy departments report on its performance after 1 year came out on the same day stating that "gasoline prices have reached a 5-year low at approximately $2.80/gal". NPR concluded that the pledge to cut utility bills "remains an unmet promise".
Data centres. On 4th March 2026 the white house announced that they had secured a pledge from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAi. They pledged to "build, bring or buy" their own power to help offset the increase in demand caused by data centres. Ensuring that "these costs are not shifted onto American households." The white house claims this will help lower the cost of electricity.
War and the 18-month mark. The US and Israel attacked Iran on 28th February 2026. According to figures from AAA via Al Jazeera petrol averaged $2.98 per gallon that day and climbed to $4.15 by 7th September. The US began selling barrels from its strategic petroleum reserve in March. 172 million barrels were part of a 400 million barrel sell off led by international energy agency members. Most of these were sold in exchange for additional barrels. By the end of September they had granted just over 133 million barrels and were looking to sell another 40 million.
On 11 May Trump told CBS News, "We're going to take off the gas tax for a period of time." For this to happen Congress would need to pass legislation to stop collecting the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. According to the congressional research service this has never happened. Trump told Bloomberg in October that he was "still thinking about it". 18 months came and went on 20 July 2026.
Where prices are now. In the 12 months to September 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' energy price index rose 20.4%, with petrol up 34.2%, natural gas 5.0% and electricity 4.4%. The Energy Information Administration puts the average household electricity price at 16.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024 and 17.3 cents in 2025, and forecasts 18.2 cents for 2026. On 18 October The Hill reported AAA's national petrol average at $4.29 a gallon, against $3.04 a year earlier.
When asked if they felt they had failed the American public on lowering the price of petrol on CNN. Energy Secretary Chris Wright responded with "no we have not" citing the Iranian regime.
Where it stands now
Broken. Trump framed it as a goal and opened the possibility that it might fall short, but he did set a timetable, and both the 12-month and 18-month marks have passed. We have not seen any form of household energy reduced by 50%. Gasoline decreased by roughly 11% during the first year of his presidency according to PolitiFact. Since the war with Iran it has increased above where it was when he took office. Prices of electricity have gone up during 2025 and are expected to continue rising in 2026.
Opinion
This was never gonna happen. It's one thing to "drill baby drill" but the country has a finite number of oil refineries and certainly not enough to flood the market and halve the prices. Right now those refineries are making hay and working flat out. In some cases, they're also skipping maintenance, which is leading to costly breakdowns.
Getting the cost of electricity down might have happened if he hadn't put a hard stop on renewable energy projects: wind and solar are still the cheaper options over the long term.