Although the national average for a gallon of gas fell below $4 on June 18, prices remained substantially higher than before President Donald Trump’s war on Iran. As The New York Times reported, prior to the war, the price of gasoline had hovered just below $3 per gallon; by May 21, as the war entered its 12th week, the national average had climbed to $4.56. But even after falling to $3.99, prices remained roughly 30% higher than before the war.

That made the $4 figure a favorable benchmark for Fox — when compared to recent highs. The decline looked substantial when measured against the wartime peak. In reality, however, drivers were still paying considerably more than before the war.

• From June 18 through June 21, Fox News aired a combined 42 minutes of coverage across segments, mentions, and teasers about falling gas prices.
• When the national average climbed back above $4 on July 20, Fox devoted just 15 minutes to the increase over the following four days. 

Fox continued to cover falling gas prices for nearly three weeks, repeatedly touting the decline and predicting that prices would fall further. That coverage continued until energy prices began rising again on July 8. 

• From June 18 through July 8, the network aired 1 hour and 45 minutes of total coverage.

Across multiple segments, Fox emphasized the decline in gas prices from their wartime peak and treated it as evidence that Trump was delivering relief, even though drivers were still paying substantially more than before the war.

• During the June 18 episode of Fox News’ America Reports, Fox Business anchor David Asman contrasted gasoline’s decline below $4 with prices exceeding $5 in June 2022, predicting that prices would return to their prewar level before the midterm elections. New York Post financial correspondent Lydia Moynihan emphasized that consumers were seeing relief “within days” rather than waiting months and called the decline “very positive” heading into the summer and midterms. [Fox News, America Reports, 6/18/26]
• The following day, Fox News’ America Reports aired a segment about U.S. oil security as tanker traffic resumed through the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting predictions from Vice President J.D. Vance and United Refining Company CEO John Catsimatidis that gasoline would fall below $3 per gallon and energy costs would continue declining. [Fox News, America Reports, 6/19/26]
• On the June 20 episode of Fox News’ Fox Report, anchor Jon Scott said drivers were “finally” receiving relief and highlighted gasoline’s decline to $3.95 per gallon, down 13 cents from the previous week and 60 cents from the previous month. [Fox News, Fox Report, 6/20/26]
• During the June 28 episode of Fox News’ One Nation, host Brian Kilmeade played a video of Trump pressuring oil companies to lower gas prices and asked whether the intervention was helping. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow said it “does help a little bit,” credited Trump with sending “an important message,” and said falling wholesale prices were reaching consumers faster than usual. Kudlow also predicted that gasoline would approach $3 by the end of the summer as increased global oil production drove prices lower. [Fox News, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, 6/28/26]

Fox made gasoline’s wartime peak the relevant baseline while prices were falling, framing an incomplete recovery from the crisis Trump’s war caused as an achievement. When prices crossed the same $4 threshold in the other direction, Fox’s interest receded. The result was a one-way political accounting: Trump received credit when prices ticked down without being held accountable when that progress unraveled.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “gas," “gasoline," “fuel," “pump," “diesel," “tank," or “gallon" within close proximity to any of the terms “cost," “price," “down," “less," or “tumble" or any variations of any of the terms “decrease," “drop," “fall," “low," or “decline" from June 18, 2026, when gas prices dropped below $4, through July 8, 2026, the day before prices started to climb again.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when declining gas prices were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of gas prices. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the gas prices with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker mentioned the gas prices without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about gas prices scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all reported times to the nearest minute.