‘That hurts’: Gas prices continue to climb ahead of Memorial Day weekend

(Gray News) - Nearly 40 million Americans are expected to hit the road this Memorial Day weekend, and gas prices are nearing their highest levels in nearly four years.

According to AAA, the national average for regular gas jumped by two cents on Wednesday. It is now $4.56 a gallon.

Peter Naylor of Lansing, Michigan, said he is not happy about how much he is paying for gas.

“I look at what I’m paying for gas and that hurts,” he said.

James Long said he is cutting back on driving and will miss time with his family.

“We got a family reunion coming up. I probably won’t go there,” he said. “You know, just, you got to do what you got to do to live.”

Long said gas prices are not cooperating with what he wants to do.

He said it would typically cost between $500 and $600 for him to visit family. Now, he said, it would cost him roughly $1,200.

President Donald Trump said Americans will have to put up with high gas prices “for a little while.”

“We just hit a new high in the stock market. Everything’s going good. I’m sorry ... We have to do something with Iran. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. You want to see the world exploded? You want to see a problem? And this is peanuts, and I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer, but you’re going to have, and frankly, there is so much oil out there,” Trump said.

GasBuddy expects the national average will fall a bit by Memorial Day to roughly $4.48 a gallon, but that would still stand as the second most expensive Memorial Day weekend price on record.

In 2022, the national average was $4.61 a gallon.

Also this month, inflation has started to outpace wage growth, and many polls show Americans are increasingly uncertain about the future and spending less on discretionary purchases.