DE SOTO, Iowa (AP) \u2014 Standing alongside his son\u2019s Ford pickup truck at a central Iowa gas station off Interstate 80, Francisco Castillo was not happy.<\/p>\n
He had voted for President Donald Trump in the last election. He believed Trump had strengthened the economy in his first term, and he wanted more of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that he was going to bring some of those things back,\u201d said Castillo, a 43-year-old factory worker. And now? \u201cHe said he was going to bring gas down, but the war in Iran is now making everything worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems a country divided on so many fronts is finding common ground in pain at the pump, where the cost of the Iran war<\/a> is hitting Americans squarely<\/a> in the wallet and aggravating people across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n For Castillo and many others filling their tanks on Monday at gas stations in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Iowa, it was a reminder that politicians\u2019 promises aren\u2019t going to pay the bills.<\/p>\n \u201cThey do what benefits them,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cI have to go to work every day no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n Some are optimistic that the sticker shock will be short-lived. Others blame corporate interests rather than the president. Electric vehicle owners are especially grateful about their decision as they cruise past gas stations with escalating prices. <\/p>\n The national average gas price was $3.48 a gallon on Monday, up from $2.90 a month ago, before the war, according to tracking by AAA.<\/p>\n The higher prices are a reminder of how Trump has veered from his campaign promises. Not only were Americans embroiled in a new war overseas, they were paying for it every time they filled up their tanks. <\/p>\n Trump insisted the conflict was worth it. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re putting an end to all of this threat once and for all, and the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families,\u201d he said at a news conference Monday. The war, he said, is \u201cjust an excursion into something that had to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Coon from Omaha, Nebraska, filled up on his way to Ames, Iowa. Though not a Trump voter, he believed the strikes in Iran needed to happen.<\/p>\n Even so, he fears U.S. involvement is not going to go the way he wants, which is \u201cin, out, over.\u201d<\/p>\n A Quinnipiac poll conducted over the weekend<\/a> found about half of registered voters oppose the U.S. military action against Iran while about 4 in 10 support it. The vast majority of Democrats were against it (89%), the vast majority of Republicans for it (85%) and independents against it (60%).<\/p>\n Overall, three-quarters were concerned about the war raising gas and oil prices.<\/p>\n In Florida, a gas guzzler keeps rolling<\/p>\n For now, surging prices aren\u2019t keeping Ray Albrecht from hauling his 32-foot (11 meter) camper on his Silverado pickup truck around the country as he attended motorcycle festivals like Bike Week in Florida\u2019s Daytona Beach. <\/p>\n However, he said he would stop traveling if the price reached $5 a gallon since he only gets 8 miles per gallon with his truck and camper. He stopped at a Speedway gas station off Interstate 4 in Winter Park, Florida, paying $3.59 per gallon for half a tank to keep him rolling toward his home in Wisconsin. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been pretty grateful that the gas prices have been really reasonable\u201d at least until the last week, said Albrecht, 67, who identified as an independent voter.<\/p>\n At the same gas station, Republican-leaning Tyler Nepple, 23, said the price of gas for his Toyota Tacoma may shape his vote in the midterm elections this fall but won\u2019t change his driving habits. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to fill it up and bite the bullet and hope that the prices go back down \u2014 that\u2019s all I can really do,\u201d said Nepple, who runs a startup in the Orlando, Florida, area. \u201cI still have to get from point A to point B, and I need gas to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n A retiree cuts back in Pennsylvania<\/p>\n Kathryn Price Engelhard, 70, gassed up her Subaru Forester at a Wawa in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia suburbs. A retired nonprofit executive director and \u201cstrong Democrat,\u201d she said she had to stop at over a half a tank because she\u2019s on a fixed income. Last week, she paid only $30 to top herself off.<\/p>\n Similarly, she cut her order for home heating oil by half because that cost is up, too. \u201cI look at the prices of oil in the past and the stupid war, how did we \u2014 how did anybody \u2014 think that that was not going to impact oil?\u201d she asked. \u201cOf course it\u2019s impacting oil.\u201d<\/p>\n In Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, Vivian Knight, 53, is hoping her fill-up last week will last her a month. She is a former exterminator out on disability. \u201cIf I had to go to work or something like that, gas prices would be ridiculous,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Speaking of Trump, she said \u201che kind of starts some problems that really don\u2019t need to be started,\u201d and she puts the Iran war in that category.<\/p>\n The saga will have no effect on how Joey Perillo, 74, will vote in November. <\/p>\n \u201cThe gas price could have gone down to two cents a gallon and I\u2019d vote against him,\u201d said the volunteer firefighter, retired actor and political independent from Yardley, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n In Michigan, gratitude for electric cars<\/p>\n In the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Anthony Gooden, 57, sized up the plight of gas-powered vehicle owners while waiting for his Chevy Equinox EV to charge at a station. <\/p>\n \u201cWhoa, they\u2019re going through it right now,\u201d said Gooden, 57, from nearby Redford Township. \u201cAnd it\u2019s only getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Gooden ditched his internal combustion engine vehicle over a year ago and said days like these reinforce that decision. \u201cYou\u2019re happier now,\u201d he said. \u201cNo comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Elvana Hammoud, 55, a diversity strategist, drives a Mach-E electric SUV as well as a Ford Raptor truck that costs $100 to fill up when gas is over $3. It\u2019s an easy choice which to use more now. <\/p>\n \u201cI mostly drive the EV, especially to work because I have a long commute,\u201d she said. The Raptor is for snowy days, short errands or when moving something big. \u201dI used it more frequently just for fun when gas prices were lower.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has put up a number of roadblocks<\/a> to rapid expansion of electric vehicles in favor of policies promoting gasoline-powered ones. Among them, his tax and spending bill passed by Congress last year eliminated federal tax credits<\/a> that saved buyers up to $7,500 off new and used EV purchases.<\/p>\n In North Carolina, worries about gouging<\/p>\n Kevin Kertesz, 65, filled his pickup at a Shell station in Graham, North Carolina, where unleaded started at $3.34 per gallon, up from $2.59 in the area last week.<\/p>\n The Republican retiree asserted that \u201ceveryone who is selling fuel for these elevated prices is price gouging, and there\u2019s nothing we can do about it because we all have to have gasoline to keep driving.\u201d <\/p>\n Ken Shuttlesworth, a 70-year-old IT manager from Graham who described himself as an independent Democrat, said he can absorb higher gas costs but worries about his children and grandchildren and others who live closer to the financial margins.<\/p>\n Trump, he said, should have consulted Congress and had a more public discussion before taking the country to war.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have somebody who doesn\u2019t follow the policy,\u201d he said. \u201cHe follows his instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Fingerhut reported from Iowa, Householder from Michigan, Schneider from Florida, Catalini from Pennsylvania and Barrow from Georgia. Associated Press writers Calvin Woodward and Linley Sanders contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DE SOTO, Iowa (AP) \u2014 Standing alongside his son\u2019s Ford pickup truck at a central Iowa gas station…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":645556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[272269,81088,274435,64,10109,10106,69,90,10102,274434,57,83,6087,274436,274433,274438,274431,80,274439,274440,29736,274432,89,61,67,132,68,274437,93,107],"class_list":["post-645555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-american-automobile-association","tag-anthony-gooden","tag-business","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-energy-industry","tag-francisco-castillo","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-joey-perillo","tag-kathryn-price-engelhard","tag-ken-shuttlesworth","tag-kevin-kertesz","tag-politics","tag-ray-albrecht","tag-robert-coon","tag-transportation-technology","tag-tyler-nepple","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vivian-knight","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}