‘People’s pocketbooks’: Newt Gingrich notes Labor Day drivers will thank Trump at the pump

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Fox Business Thursday that President Donald Trump’s economic approval numbers could soon rebound to — or even surpass — their first-term levels.

Americans hitting the road this Labor Day weekend are seeing the lowest gas prices in at least five years. Responding to a question on “Kudlow” about Trump’s economic approval rating during his first term, Gingrich said lower gas prices are poised to shift American sentiment back in Trump’s favor.

“I just watched today as Karoline Leavitt laid out the fact that this particular weekend, people go out to drive. They’re going to have the lowest gasoline price in five years,” Gingrich said. “Now, that’s real. That’s an effect. That’s in people’s pocketbooks. And my hunch is that by early next year, Trump’s job approval on the economy will be back up where it was in his first term or higher. Because I just believe it’s a matter of fundamentals.”

Gas prices soared under former President Joe Biden, hitting record highs in June 2022 with the national average nearing $5 per gallon. In contrast, GasBuddy projects Labor Day weekend prices in 2025 will average $3.15 per gallon—the lowest since 2020 and below the $3.16 recorded in 2021.

Gingrich said voters were thrown off by Trump’s tariff fights, which he said appeared chaotic.

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“I think the turmoil about the tariffs where people didn’t understand what he was doing, where a lot of the negotiations were in public, seemed confusing. I think the Democrats ran an all-out — and so did most of the propaganda media of the left — ran an all-out campaign to try to smear the bill and to make it look bad,” Gingrich added.

Gingrich said a little-noticed provision in Trump’s economic agenda could charge investment, pointing to a new rule that lets companies fully depreciate factories in just one year instead of 39.

“It took 39 years to depreciate a factory. Under the new bill, for the next six years, it takes one year. So the incentive to go out and build, for example, the new computing centers is going to be just enormous,” Gingrich said.

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, reinstates a 100% bonus depreciation for qualified property placed in service after Jan. 19, 2025, allowing businesses to fully expense major assets like factories and computing centers in a single year rather than over 39 years. A new provision under Section 168(n) also extends this benefit to nonresidential production facilities built between 2025 and 2028, provided they are placed in service by 2031.

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