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What does Sean Hannity think about gas prices? It depends on who’s president.

Written by Isabella Corrao, Jane Lee & Helena Hind

Published

Fox News host Sean Hannity constantly criticized high gas prices during the Biden administration, but as Trump's invasion of Iran has caused crude oil prices to rise — resulting in similarly high gas prices — Hannity has had a different response. This time around, the Fox News host has minimized the effects of high gas prices on Americans, attempted to reassure his viewers that the pain at the pump is “temporary,” and reminded them that gas prices were higher under the Biden administration.

Below is a list of examples comparing Hannity's responses to similar gas prices during the Biden and Trump administrations.

Gas prices have fluctuated across both the Biden and Trump administrations

  • During Joe Biden’s presidency, the increase in gas prices was driven by a variety of global factors, including increased demand for oil as the world emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. As the world began to recover from COVID-19 in 2021, the global demand for petroleum outpaced supply, causing oil prices to spike. 2020 saw oil production cuts and — even as demand rose — OPEC announced it would maintain limited production increases in order to “support higher crude oil prices.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 also contributed to “higher and more volatile crude oil prices,” as Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of petroleum and liquid fuels. [U.S. Energy Information Administration, 1/4/22; U.S. Energy Information Administration, 12/19/22]
  • The U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran has led to rising gas prices during Trump’s second term. The war has functionally closed the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world's crude oil normally passes through on tankers. According to the International Energy Agency, this closure has “triggered the largest supply disruption in the history of oil markets,” and naturally, as crude oil prices rise, gas prices rise with it. [PBS, 5/5/26; CNN, 3/21/26]

Jump to Price for Gasoline

  • $3.00 - $3.50 / gallon

  • During the Biden administration

    • Ahead of the 2024 election, Hannity campaigned on Trump’s behalf: “You want peace through strength? You think the world will be safer and more secure with Donald Trump? He did it before, I would imagine he would do it again. You want lower inflation, lower gas prices, you want a stronger economy? He did it before and he will do it again.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/31/24]
      • $3.45 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity bragged about gas prices during Trump’s first administration: “When he did leave office, gas prices were a little over $2 a gallon, gas on the national average never hit $3 a gallon.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/16/24]
      • $3.38 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “Bidenomics is great, Kamala was telling us. Now she's complaining about the high cost of things like bread and eggs, et cetera. Or what about, for example, the high gas prices, electricity prices, energy prices? It's just killing American families.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/22/24]
      • $3.31 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • During the Trump administration

    • After the war started, Hannity bragged that gas prices were down, then hedged that “they may go up temporarily a little bit because of the disruption of the free flow of oil at market prices.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/3/26]
      • $3.50 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • On his radio show, Hannity assured a caller that high gas prices due to the Iran war “will be temporary.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/4/26]
      • $3.50 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity touted gas prices coming down and added that the rise in oil prices would “probably be a temporary increase.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/4/26]
      • $3.50 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity acknowledged that people were “rightly concerned over the price of gas” and then lectured listeners about how gas was more expensive under Biden: “You want some perspective? I'll give you perspective. That's my job to give you perspective. Anybody remember gas prices under Joe Biden, you know, ever, without any involvement in any U.S. war? National average for a gallon of regular gasoline? … Regular gasoline was $5.03 in June of 2022.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/6/26]
      • $3.50 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • $3.50 - $3.75 / gallon

  • During the Biden administration

    • Hannity: “Joe went to war with oil and gas, driving up gas prices, which drove up the price of every item you buy and every store you go to. But he did give Vladimir Putin a pass. He was allowed to build his gas pipelines.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/5/24]
      • $3.59 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “Gas prices are now up more than 50 percent since Joe took office. Energy prices are up nearly 30 percent and they are going higher, increasing at a rate that is 13 times faster than under Trump and Obama, the last seven, eight years. It has never been more expensive to live in our country and it's about to get even worse.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/12/24]
      • $3.63 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • During the Trump administration

    • Hannity: “There's going to be a little bit short-term disruption of the oil markets that will be handled expeditiously. I know that's a top priority for the president. I know it's inconveniencing.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/12/26]
      • $3.72 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • $3.75 - $4.00 / gallon

  • During the Biden administration

    • Hannity highlighted how rising gas prices are “painful to millions of Americans” and “beyond devastating to the poor, the middle class and, of course, it's clobbering those people on fixed incomes.” He blamed Biden’s policies: “Joe Biden caused all of these problems when he abandoned the energy independence policies that he inherited from Donald Trump and, of course, capitulating to the Democratic Party's climate alarmist cult.” [Fox News, Hannity, 10/5/22]
      • $3.91 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “Biden's radical, environmental, climate alarmist, religious cult policies have been nothing short of a disaster for all of us, everyday Americans. According to the most recent data, look at this, gas prices are now well over 50 percent higher than when President Trump left office, in January of 2021, as we are now once again nearing the $4 a gallon gasoline mark. When Joe Biden became president, gas averaged, what, two dollars and 33 cents a gallon?” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/10/23]
      • $3.85 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity listed alleged Biden’s lies according to former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore, declaring, “Perhaps most egregious, Biden actually claims that gas prices have fallen under his administration.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/17/23]
      • $3.87 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “When Donald Trump was president, gas prices never reached $3 a gallon. Not at any point on average. Now, we're headed back towards an average of $4 a gallon, and many states, over $5 already.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/17/23]
      • $3.87 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • During the Trump administration

    • Hannity criticized “hysterically negative” mainstream media coverage of “what will be — I can say with 100% certainty — a temporary spike in oil prices and then probably a massive reduction.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 3/19/26]
      • $3.96 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • $4.00 - $4.25 / gallon

  • During the Biden administration

    • Hannity: The Biden administration “paused all new leases on oil and gas, because of climate change. What a surprise, U.S. gas prices predictably are higher than ever. In fact, costs have been rising every single month since Joe Biden took office. Vladimir Putin did not cause that. Joe Biden, New Green Deal radical socialism caused it.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/31/22]
      • $4.17 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity claimed that “the bulk of the increase” in gas prices “occurred well before Vladimir Putin and Russia invaded Ukraine.” Hannity continued, “Joe Biden’s policies caused all of this. And this is now the big lie. We’re going to blame Putin for inflation, we’re going to blame Putin for the high price of gasoline, but it was Joe Biden’s policy of reducing oil and gas production.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/12/22]
      • $4.07 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • During the Trump administration

    • Hannity recounted Trump's address on the Iran war: “This pain at the pump, he says, will not last. America, he rightly pointed out, produces more oil and gas than any other country in the entire world.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/1/26]
      • $4.12 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity acknowledged that gas was “a lot more expensive than it had been, you know, a month and a half ago, but that's, you know — I'm fine with it for now.” He continued: “I know it's a burden on some people. I feel bad for people. And, you know, the sooner this is over, the better.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/7/26]
      • $4.12 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “You have oil, you know, trading at about $100 a barrel, at any given time, that raises the price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump. I don't think that helps the economy in any way.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/13/26]
      • $4.12 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “While the rest of the media pretends not to notice, pump prices for unleaded regular have fallen five cents per gallon in the last week, from $4.16 a gallon to $4.11 a gallon, and don't forget under Joe Biden, it was over $5 a gallon, but that's neither here nor there.” He included, “Everybody wants gas prices low as possible. I want them down as low as possible.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/15/26]
      • $4.04 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • After a caller on Hannity’s radio show said, “All I really care about is our gas prices going down,” Hannity responded with: “There is some short term pain that goes along with making the world a safer place,” and promised that “this is going to be over very, very quickly from this point on.” He elaborated: “I'm a gas paying American like you. I hate to pay one cent more than I have to pay for anything. … However, I do like the fact that we're not going to be handing off to our kids and grandkids a nuclear-armed Iran.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 4/16/26]
      • $4.04 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • $4.25 - $4.75 / gallon

  • During the Biden administration

    • A few weeks after Russia attacked Ukraine, Hannity blamed rising gas prices on Biden’s energy policies: “According to Biden, his new domestic energy restrictions has nothing to do with the high cost of gasoline. Before Russia, Putin invaded Ukraine, we were paying pretty close to a buck 50 more a gallon." Hannity added, “Of course, President Trump was right. He warned us that gas prices, they would spike under Biden. And guess what? It's now happening.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/8/22]
      • $4.32 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “This idea that Putin caused last year's oil and gas spike is a lie. They need to stop lying that Putin caused Joe's 40-year high end inflation. We had that 40-year high before Ukraine was invaded by Russia.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/10/22]
      • $4.32 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “Joe Biden's policies artificially reduce the world supply. Is it any shock that demand remained constant and even increased that the price goes up and we're all paying the price? The average family, because of Biden inflation, nearly $6,000 a year. If you drive a car every day, you're going to pay about $2,000 more for gasoline this year. We'll see how high the number goes by the end of the year.” [Fox News, Hannity, 5/23/22]
      • $4.59 was the national average gas price for this week.

  • During the Trump administration

    • Sean Hannity agreed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that “it's only going to be a matter of weeks” until the Iran war is over, and that “high gas prices will come down very quickly.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/4/26]
      • $4.45 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity explained high gas prices to a disgruntled radio caller: “World markets do impact local markets, and that's just simple economics." Hannity continued: “But once this is over, and I do believe it will come to an end sooner than later, I think that those prices will come down rather precipitously, and I think it's going to happen quickly.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/4/26]
      • $4.45 was the national average gas price for this week
    • Hannity said “gas prices then coming down” after the conflict concludes “would be a natural consequence.” He added, “The foundational pieces that the president put in place for significant economic growth in spite of, you know, higher gas prices, in spite of what's happening in Iran, every economic indicator shows robust growth and job creation in the country.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/6/26]
      • $4.50 was the national average gas price for this week.
    • Hannity: “One big problem right now is gas prices, but as soon as Iran is over, that will come to an end.” He also said, “I fully and completely understand” that “it’s not a small issue for most people.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/8/26]
      • $4.50 was the national average gas price for this week
    • Hannity on the Iran war: “People wish it would be over. I want it to be over. I don't want gas prices to go up at all.” He added, “Though, I noticed the price of a barrel of oil, last couple of days, it’s down again today." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/8/26]
      • $4.50 was the national average gas price for this week
    • Hannity acknowledged “the biggest complaint people have is that gas prices have gone up,” but “not nearly as high as when Joe Biden was president,” while also praising Trump’s removal of the gas tax. He added, “When you think of what's at stake, and that would be a nuclear-armed Iran, I don't think it's much of an option.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 5/11/26]
      • $4.50 was the national average gas price for this week
    • Hannity asserted that “gas prices will stabilize” prior to the 2026 midterm election. [Fox News, Hannity, 5/11/26]
      • $4.50 was the national average gas price for this week