It takes quite a lot to make a CNN anchor laugh on live television during a serious segment about gas prices and midterm elections. But a Trump misquote involving the very anchor conducting the interview apparently cleared that bar without much effort.
CNN News Central anchor John Berman was in the middle of a segment with Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas when he prepared to play two Trump clips back to back.
“OK, he says he was misquoted, congressman,” Berman said before laughing on air. “It turns out it was an interview, out loud, with the same Fox anchor, which I want to play for you right now, where he says oil prices could be higher. Listen.”
The Sunday interview is where Trump’s week started going sideways. Bartiromo asked a simple question about whether gas prices would fall before November. “I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be, it could be. Or the same. Or maybe a little bit higher. But it should be around the same,” Trump replied. Bartiromo’s eyebrows shot up, her eyes widening. She blinked in apparent disbelief but said nothing.
Bartiromo: Do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections?
Trump: I hope so. I mean, I think so, it could be. It could be the same or maybe a little bit higher. pic.twitter.com/dtyMN2Qm2x
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2026
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By Wednesday, Trump had a revised account of what happened. “Well, look, there’s a hit because, you know, we go through it for whatever it is, six weeks,” he told Bartiromo in the follow-up interview.
“There’s going to be a hit, but it’s going to recover, I think, fully. Somehow they misquoted me. I think oil will be down to the levels it was.” He added: “You know, they said I expect oil to be high at the midterms. I don’t expect that.” The person who said oil could be higher at the midterms was Donald Trump, speaking out loud, on tape, three days earlier, to Maria Bartiromo.
Berman summarized the situation for Sessions with barely contained amusement.
“So again, to Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, he said maybe ‘the same’ or ‘a little bit higher.’ Today he said definitely lower and I was misquoted when I said they could be higher. What do you think about his claims about being misquoted?”
Sessions responded by pivoting to the Iran war and describing it as a “high-stakes tussle with the Iranians.” The misquoting question was not directly addressed, which was perhaps the most honest response available to him.
Fox News flashed the national average gas price on screen during the Wednesday interview, which hit $4.108 per gallon according to AAA, up around 51 cents from a month ago when the average was $3.598. The numbers on screen were making a rather different argument than the president.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
