With fuel prices spiking because of the Iran war, Trump is proposing to waive the federal gas tax — a levy that funds the Highway Trust Fund, which finances roads and bridges. The actual pump savings would be modest; the political return is not. This is a classic pressure-valve move: manufacture a visible, attributable number at the register while the underlying cause — a war this administration is managing — stays off the receipt. Highway infrastructure absorbs the real cost later, quietly.

That's not soft opposition — "strongly oppose" is the intensity tier that drives ballot measures and local vetoes. Only 23 percent expressed any level of support. For an industry counting on federal permitting shortcuts and state tax incentives to build out at speed, this is a structural political problem: the siting fights haven't started yet, but the public is already primed to organize against them.