President Donald Trump's latest attempt to reduce costs ahead of the midterm elections comes with a significant "catch," according to one analyst.
CNN's Matt Egan, senior business reporter, discussed Trump's executive order to suspend federal highway taxes on red-dye diesel, which is typically used for off-road purposes, on CNN's "News Central" with host Boris Sanchez. Trump signed the executive order at his rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday, an order that he seemed confused by when he told the crowd about it.
Egan noted that there is a significant "catch" to Trump's order — the taxes are not going away completely. Instead, Trump deferred them to the end of the year.
"It does instruct officials to explore forgiveness, but that is not a done deal by any stretch," Egan said.
Trump made the announcement when the average price of a regular gallon of gas was around $4.36 and a gallon of diesel hovered around $6.23, according to data compiled by AAA.
Egan noted that the announcement is expected to have relatively little to no impact on fuel prices ahead of the midterms, which are just a month away. He noted that the average diesel consumer can expect to save about $0.60 a gallon, which amounts to a roughly 10% discount.
"I talked to a truck driver, a truck company owner in my home state of New Jersey, and he said that this all amounts to just a band-aid, and he said the band-aid is arriving pretty late because they've been dealing with sky-high prices now since the war started," Egan said.
