California: Trump wants to send a check? Pay Americans back the $108 billion his Iran War cost them at the pump first
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Sep 17, 2026

Trump wants to send a check? Pay Americans back the $108 billion his Iran War cost them at the pump first

What you need to know: As the Trump gas price crisis drives higher costs across the entire U.S. economy, Governor Newsom is calling Trump's promised $5,000 check exactly what it is: paying voter for their votes, especially after Trump suggested the payouts would depend on Republicans winning the midterms. The Governor is demanding Trump and congressional Republicans reimburse American families for fuel-price spikes caused by their reckless Iran war.

SACRAMENTO – Before Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress ask Americans to wait on another imaginary $5,000 check — one Trump has said won't go out unless Republicans win the midterms — Governor Gavin Newsom today called the offer what it is: buying votes. The payout would cost taxpayers an estimated $1.2 trillion.

Governor Newsom demanded that they drop this ridiculous scheme and instead pony up to cover the bill for what they've forced on American families: more than $108 billion in extra fuel costs since Trump launched his endless war on Iran with no plan to protect the U.S. economy.

If Trump and congressional Republicans want to put money back in people's pockets, they know where to start: pay Americans back the more than $108 billion Trump-Iran war surcharge that families, farmers, and small businesses have already been stuck with thanks to the war's entirely predictable effect on gas and diesel prices. That's nearly $900 per household.

The Trump administration started a war with Iran with no plan to protect America's economic security. It's time for them to reimburse the American people.

Governor Gavin Newsom

This week marks 200 days of Trump's costly Iran war — one that he said was going to be done in one month — and the average household has paid nearly $900 in additional fuel costs, according to Brown University. That's money pulled straight out of family budgets to fill up a gas tank, run a farm, or keep a small business's trucks on the road that would otherwise drive the American economy forward.

Trump's historically high nationwide gas and diesel prices have added pressure to the booming costs of food, housing, and everyday items. Americans deserve accountability for Trump's high costs and meaningful relief that puts money back in their pockets, not another empty promise.

Promises made, promises kept

This is the third time Trump has promised Americans a check funded by money he doesn't have. The first two checks worth a total of $7,000 never arrived.

🤥 February 2025: Trump peddled a "DOGE dividend," $5,000 checks funded by so-called savings from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The checks never went out.

🤥 November 2025: Trump promised a $2,000 "tariff dividend" for middle- and moderate-income Americans, telling reporters the payments would arrive "probably the middle of" 2026. 10 months later, nothing.

The bill for Trump's Iran war is real, and Americans have been paying it for over 6 months straight:
  • Gas topped $4 a gallon nationwide over Labor Day weekend, the most expensive Labor Day gas price on record, according to AAA. The states with the largest price increases since last week include Michigan, Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
  • Diesel crossed $6 national average per gallon for the first time in U.S. history last week, driving up costs for truckers, farmers, and every business that depends on shipping.
  • Crude oil is up nearly 50% since the war started, and every $10-a-barrel increase adds roughly 24 cents to a gallon of gas, a tax every driver in the country is paying, whether they live in California, Texas, or Florida.
  • The cost of hiring an oil tanker has topped $1 million a day on the industry's benchmark Persian Gulf-to-China route for the first time ever, Bloomberg reported, as too few tankers are willing to cross the Strait of Hormuz to collect cargo.
  • Taxpayers are footing the bill for the war itself: the conflict has cost $38 billion through July, and the Congressional Budget Office projects the federal government will keep spending $2 billion to $3 billion more every month it continues.

A trail of nonsensical lies

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🤥 On February 24, just days before Donald Trump ordered the Iran war, Trump took a victory lap on gasoline prices during his State of the Union address, boasting low gasoline prices. Today, Americans are left with higher costs at the pump, with working families, farmers, small businesses, drivers, and everyone else paying the price.

🤥 On February 28, four days later, Donald Trump bombed Iran with no plan to safeguard the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway where 20% of global oil trade passes through daily. The result: crude prices shot up, translating into higher prices on everything from gasoline and diesel to jet fuel and shipped goods.

🤥 On March 8, as gas prices spiked nationwide, Energy Secretary Wright said on CBS's Face the Nation: "We have a temporary period of elevated energy prices, but it will not be long. In the worst case, this is weeks — this is not months, and it leads to a better place." Today, over 3 months in, that statement stands as either a lie or a stunning display of negligence.

🤥 On March 12, as gas prices continued rising nationwide, President Trump posted on social media that "when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money" — an extraordinary admission that higher gas prices benefit his Big Oil donors while American families bear the cost.

🤥 On March 15, Energy Secretary Wright appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and pointed to the illegal restart of the Sable pipeline off the Santa Barbara coast as proof the administration was acting. "We've got new oil production coming on in California," Wright said. "So lots of actions we're taking to mitigate this price rise." That was a lie. Sable promised its project would "offer Californians immediate relief at the pump by making gas more affordable." Oil from the Sable Offshore Pipeline would be a drop in the bucket — 0.05% of total oil production — that would have zero impact on lowering global oil prices.

🤥 On April 7, Trump's own Energy Information Administration administrator admitted that fuel prices will keep rising unless there is a solution to the Strait's closure.

🤥 On April 12, Trump confessed that gas prices "could be the same or maybe a little bit higher" by November. On the same day, he ordered a U.S. Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — driving prices higher still.

🤥 On April 13, Secretary Wright accidentally let the truth slip out: "We're going to see energy prices high and maybe even rising until we get… meaningful ship traffic through the Straits of Hormuz."

🤥 On May 10, after spending over two months making predictions and promises about gas prices, Secretary Wright avoided (https://us.list-manage.com/141oqrSnJfk?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) price predictions as gas prices continued to skyrocket: "I don't know the future of gas prices" — this comes after he said there was "a good chance" that gas prices would drop below $3 per gallon before the summer travel season begins. On that same day, Wright also admitted (https://us.list-manage.com/e0uysk5yFEO?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) that the only solution to Trump's energy crisis was opening up the Strait of Hormuz: "I can say that when we start to get free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, energy prices will come down."

🤥 On June 3, after weeks of falsely stating (https://us.list-manage.com/o9Kt01zmcT4?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) that gas prices would go down if California just drilled more oil in the ocean, Secretary Wright admitted the truth: "It's a global market."

🤥 On June 5, with gas prices still remaining high, Secretary Wright bragged that the administration increased (https://us.list-manage.com/GkQl6npMZXP?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) oil production after illegally using the Defense Production Act to reopen the Sable Pipeline in Santa Barbara, falsely claiming: "It grew California's oil and gas production by 20% — just turning a valve." He then went on to state (https://us.list-manage.com/5awyH7f6Fw5?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) that "The pathway to bring gasoline and diesel prices back down is to get more oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. Ultimately that's ⁠going to be a resolution with Iran."

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🤥 On June 6, Secretary Wright misled the public into believing that they were boosting (https://us.list-manage.com/6BeLIlatMJs?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) oil supply by 20% after forcing an illegal oil operation to run at Sable Offshore Pipeline. Again, the truth the administration does not want Americans to know: oil from the Sable Offshore Pipeline would be a drop in the bucket — 0.05% of total oil production — that would have zero impact on lowering global oil prices. Since oil trades at a worldwide price, American crude sells to the highest bidder, not at a discount for American consumers. This is just more distraction from the real driver of gas prices.

🤥 On June 9, Secretary Wright changed (https://us.list-manage.com/W5KBG8moXBZ?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) his tune from March saying that the energy crisis would be temporary, now it will take "many months" to get back to normal after this energy crisis.

🤥 On June 10, with the national average gas price still up 40% from before the war, Trump declared (https://us.list-manage.com/efh9OBMHDzR?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163): "I love it. The numbers were great… I love the inflation."

🤥 On August 14, at a New York political rally, Trump lectured Americans (https://us.list-manage.com/gZe_d1GLdQF?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) to accept paying "a tiny little bit more for your gasoline" as the cost of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

🤥 On August 20, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he did not "really understand" (https://us.list-manage.com/ik7RyyKQEAt?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) why oil prices had spiked as Trump's Iran war dragged into its 6th month.

🤥 On September 6, when asked whether prices could rise further, Secretary Wright said (https://us.list-manage.com/SkEno8ezDJC?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163): "I don't want to have an opinion on that." Let that sink in. Trump's top energy official doesn't have an opinion on skyrocketing gas prices 200 days after he assured the American people that higher gas prices were temporary.

🤥 On September 9, Trump admitted (https://us.list-manage.com/EfwJ4th7qH3?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) oil prices would likely NOT begin "tumbling downward" until after the midterms, adding, "I think it's going to take a little bit longer than the midterm." On the same day, CNBC revealed (https://us.list-manage.com/rzzs9KQKjo3?e=ad974c4bf8&c2id=d413becc102531d8f67a44f85f1cd163) that Trump's oil investments have gained millions. While our brave service members are fighting overseas, Trump's accounts keep trading.

Economy (https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/content-types/economy/), Press releases (https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/press-releases/), Recent news (https://www.gov.ca.gov/category/recent-news/)

Recent news

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