Trump Moves To Cut Diesel Costs With Order on Tax-Free Fuel

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing drivers to use tax-exempt red-dyed diesel, a fuel normally reserved for farm machinery and other off-road equipment, on public roads. The move came as surging pump prices tied to the Iran war weighed on Trump’s Republican Party weeks before the US midterm elections.

Trump told supporters the order would “officially waive the off-road requirement and allow anyone to purchase tax-free red-dyed diesel for any reason.”

The president admitted he was unfamiliar with the fuel, joking to the crowd: “I don’t know what the hell it is, but whatever it is, it’s supposed to be very good.”

A White House fact sheet released alongside the order described a more limited measure than the one Trump announced on stage. Rather than scrapping the tax, the order instructs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to defer the tax owed on dyed diesel used on roads until the end of the year.