With just four weeks to go before the midterm elections, soaring fuel prices are putting enormous pressure on the president and his Republican Party. Donald Trump has said he is considering suspending the federal gasoline tax, as the White House scrambles to respond to a fuel price crisis ahead of the November midterms.

Asked on Tuesday whether he was weighing a suspension of the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, Trump said: "We're looking at it." Any such measure would require congressional approval.

With only four weeks remaining until the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, surging fuel prices have placed heavy pressure on the president and his fellow Republicans and have eroded voter support. Worried about a backlash at the polls, Trump has held crisis meetings with aides to assess various ways of bringing down soaring oil prices, including a possible ban on diesel exports.

The president's latest remarks follow his move to relax restrictions on dyed diesel. Normally limited to off-road use, dyed diesel is now permitted on public roads, with its tax of 24.4 cents per gallon deferred until after the end of this year.

Although several states have already suspended their gasoline taxes, the federal gasoline tax has never been suspended since the Highway Trust Fund was established in 1956, with its proceeds used for road construction. In 2022, when oil prices surged after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, then-president Joe Biden asked Congress to suspend the tax for three months, but it was never implemented. In May of this year, when oil prices spiked following the outbreak of conflict with Iran, Trump also voiced support for a so-called "gas tax holiday," saying the tax could be "suspended for a period of time."

Several bills aimed at enacting a suspension have been introduced this year, but none has been brought to a vote. According to AAA data, the average U.S. gasoline price on Tuesday was $4.37 per gallon, up nearly 50% from when the United States and Israel first bombed Iran in February, though still below the record high of $5.02 per gallon set in 2022 after the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. Meanwhile, diesel prices set a new record of $6.53 per gallon last month. Prices have since eased slightly, but as of Tuesday they remained historically high at $6.32 per gallon.

On Friday of last week, after European allies agreed to release more refined product inventories as part of a joint G7 effort to push prices down, Trump dropped his threat to ban diesel exports. Had such a ban been imposed, it could have had enormous global repercussions.