Chris Wright, the Trump administration’s energy secretary, acknowledged Sunday that it might not be until 2027 before US gas prices come back under $3 a gallon.

Asked by Jake Tapper, the CNN State of the Union host, when he thought “it’s realistic for Americans to expect the gas will go back to under $3 a gallon”, Wright replied: “I don’t know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year.”

Wright then maintained, without elaborating that “prices have likely peaked and they will start going down”. He said a conclusion to the war in Iran that the US started alongside Israel in late February would see energy prices “go down”.

Tapper pressed Wright on whether it might be 2027 before gasoline prices drop under $3 a gallon, the level they were at in December, as the Trump administration touted.

Wright seemingly deflected, saying: “Under $3 a gallon is pretty tremendous in an inflation-adjusted terms. We had that in the Trump administration, but we hadn’t seen that in inflation-adjusted terms for quite a long time. We will get back there, for sure.”

Donald Trump campaigned aggressively on promises to lower gasoline prices as he successfully ran for a second presidency in November 2024. He even promised to lower gasoline prices below $2 a gallon.

“Energy is going to bring us back,” he said in a September 2024 campaign speech. “That means we’re going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, air fares, and housing costs.”

US gasoline prices soared after Iran responded to attacks by the US and Israel by twice closing the strait of Hormuz – through which a significant portion of the world’s petroleum and oil supply transits.

They were at $2.98 a gallon on average in the days before the start of the Iran war and climbed to $3.98 a gallon on average in late March.

US gasoline price averages stabilized at more than $4 a gallon in April, and the war has been expected to lead to higher costs of other goods and services.

An NBC poll on Sunday of more than 32,000 adults estimated 67% and 68% of the public “somewhat” or “strongly” disapproved of the way Trump was handling the war in Iran as well as “inflation and the cost of living” domestically.

Wright’s comments on Sunday shifted from positions he had taken in earlier interviews.

During a 15 March conversation with NBC’s Meet the Press, Wright was asked if gasoline prices in the US would drop under $3 a gallon by the summer – and he replied there was “a very good chance that’ll be true”.

Wright also told Tapper on 8 March about surging gasoline prices: “In the worst case, this is a weeks – this is not a months thing.”