President Trump recently listened to an industry proposal to raise the gas tax, but that doesn’t mean he supports the idea, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.
Bloomberg reported that Trump said in an interview Monday he’s considering raising the gas tax in order to pay for his $1 trillion infrastructure plan that could be released this month. But Spicer said that Trump only heard the idea from industry leaders, and said he would listen to it “out of respect.”
“He did not express support for it,” Spicer said. “He expressed that a group he had met with has expressed support for it and he would, out of respect, would consider their request.”
“There was no endorsement of it or support for it,” Spicer added.
Spicer said Trump had recently met with business leaders who told him about how bad roads and infrastructure systems in the United States are hurting their ability to move goods. Trump was told by those industry leaders that raising the gas tax could be a way to pay for more infrastructure funding.
The gas tax is 18.4 cents on a gallon of unleaded gasoline and 24.4 cents on a gallon of diesel fuel. It’s been about 24 years since the federal gas tax was increased.
