WASHINGTON — Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, put a dollar figure on what she called President Donald Trump’s broken promises on Tuesday. She said in a post on X that a gallon of regular gasoline in Illinois now costs $4.66, up from $3.31 a year ago, and that Trump “broke his promise to cut costs and avoid war.”
The post was published at 12:07 p.m. on Oct. 6, 2026. Duckworth wrote in full:
“Trump promised to cut your energy prices in half within 12 months.
Today, a gallon of regular in Illinois costs $4.66. One year ago, it cost $3.31. That’s $20 more to fill a 15-gallon tank.
Trump broke his promise to cut costs and avoid war. Now you’re stuck holding the bill.”
The Numbers Behind the Post
By Duckworth’s figures, Illinois drivers are paying $1.35 more per gallon than they were a year ago. Over a 15-gallon fill-up, that adds roughly $20. She framed the difference as a bill handed to households that did not run it up themselves.
The post ties two of Trump’s campaign themes together, lower costs and fewer foreign wars. Duckworth argues the Iran war has undercut both.
The Promise
Trump made the pledge on the 2024 campaign trail. “We’re going to cut fuel prices in half in 12 months,” he said in a campaign interview that year, presenting energy costs as the core of his case on affordability. An energy analyst said at the time that oil companies would lose money on every barrel if prices were cut that far, and that he saw no realistic path to such a drop.
Twelve months from Trump’s return to office on Jan. 20, 2025, ended in January 2026. That was weeks before the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February. Gas prices stood below $3 a gallon nationally when the war began.
A War That Reached the Pump
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows in peacetime, sent energy markets sharply higher. A spring ceasefire briefly eased the pressure. When it fell apart, Iran began firing on oil tankers in the strait. AAA data showed the national average hitting $4 a gallon on July 20.
As of this week, the national average is above $4 a gallon, more than 40 percent higher than when the war began. A running tally of added fuel costs puts the extra spending per American household at about $820 as of Tuesday, and projects it will pass $1,100 by the end of fall.
Duckworth’s Campaign to End the War
Tuesday’s post follows months of public statements and legislative action by Duckworth on the war and its cost to families. After Trump announced the spring ceasefire, she said in a statement that “Trump promised no new foreign wars and to lower everyday costs.” She added that Americans instead faced the president threatening to use their taxpayer resources, and their sons and daughters, while they “can barely afford gas, groceries and child care here at home.” She called on Senate Republican Leader John Thune to bring the Senate back into session to vote on a War Powers Resolution.
In April, Duckworth and Democratic colleagues pressed a series of War Powers votes. In a release from Duckworth’s office, she said Trump “continues to plunge our nation deeper into his unjustified war of choice,” a conflict she said was “sending prices skyrocketing for Americans at home.” The release said six additional Democratic senators had joined the push.
Two days later, Duckworth led Senate Democrats on the floor in urging Republicans to support her own War Powers Resolution. She told colleagues that “more American families are struggling to afford the spiking gas prices” and described drivers who must fill up regardless of cost to get to work, take children to school or bring aging parents to the doctor.
On April 30, the 60-day mark of the war, Senate Republicans voted down a War Powers Resolution offered by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). It was the sixth time Republicans had blocked a Democratic effort to end the war, according to a release from Duckworth’s office. The release said the war had already cost taxpayers at least $25 billion.
On May 20, Duckworth said again that Congress must curtail the war. Senate Democrats estimated that high gas prices were costing Americans $571 million more per day nationwide. They noted that a Pentagon official had testified the war’s cost had risen to $29 billion. Democrats argued Trump campaigned on ending foreign wars and lowering prices. “He’s done the opposite of all of that,” Duckworth said.
The White House Response
Trump has defended the war and framed the price increase as temporary. Early in the conflict, he wrote on Truth Social that short-term oil prices were “a very small price to pay” for safety and peace. He has also said gasoline would “drop like a rock” once the war is over. At a Long Island rally, he said he would “never apologize” for higher gas prices.
This week, Trump offered a different explanation. On Monday, he blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for high gas prices and said the Iran war was no longer responsible. On Tuesday, he said the war could end shortly before or after the November midterm elections, and that prices would then “come tumbling down.”
The Political Stakes
The timing carries weight for the midterms on Nov. 3, less than a month away. On the prediction market Polymarket on Tuesday, the odds of Democrats winning the House of Representatives stood at 93 percent. Gas prices and the war have become central to the debate over affordability heading into the vote.
Duckworth’s post condenses the argument into a few lines: a price, a year-ago comparison, and a promise she says was broken. With the war unresolved and pump prices above $4 nationally, the question of who bears the cost is likely to stay in front of voters through Election Day.