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Labor Day weekend: the first $4 gasoline holiday on record. Diesel is $5.88. · Trump: Pickaxe Mountain “very soon.” Tehran calls a strike a new war. · Paco Baca: “Demencrazy” on the road to the Strait of Hormuz · Washington’s $5 billion bomb sale to Saudi Arabia is still before Congress · Sheinbaum is still pressing Washington on steel, aluminum and autos

The Weekend

Labor Day weekend is the first $4 gasoline holiday on record. The war is in the tank.

AAA has never printed a Labor Day above $4. This morning the national average is $4.15. Diesel is $5.88. The midterms will meet the pump before they meet a debate.

The Rocket News · U.S. Desk · WashingtonSeptember 5, 2026 · 6 min read

A Labor Day gas-station board: regular $5.49 cash, higher on the card, diesel on the same pylon, palms over the canopy.
A Labor Day gas-station board: regular $5.49 cash, higher on the card, diesel on the same pylon, palms over the canopy.

Video

High gas prices impact Arizona Labor Day plans · FOX 10 Phoenix · Watch on FOX 10 Phoenix

Americans are on the road for Labor Day weekend, and they are paying a number the holiday has never carried. AAA’s national average for regular gasoline stood at $4.15 a gallon as of Saturday morning — the first Labor Day above $4 on record. The old mark, $3.82, was set in 2012. Reuters timed the print to the weekend. GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan had already said $4.03 on Monday itself would be enough to break the chart.

Diesel is $5.88, a record of its own — AAA’s Saturday print, a tick above Friday’s $5.85. Airfare is about 20 percent higher than a year ago, AAA says. California is $5.78. Washington is $5.47. The U.S. desk files the weekend America can feel without a briefing: a fill-up, a ticket, a grocery cart that rides a diesel truck.

Gasoline demand usually falls after August. This year the Strait of Hormuz does not. Crude has been in the $90s. The president called the war small potatoes on Friday. The pump, on Saturday, is still the size of the holiday.

The holiday that used to get cheaper just got a war tax.

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