In a major disappointment for American consumers, former President Donald Trump has comprehensively failed to meet his key election promise to halve electricity prices within the first year of his second term. Instead, power bills across the US have surged, leaving households grappling with soaring energy costs.
According to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average household electricity bill in the US was 6.7% more expensive in 2025 compared to the previous year. This translates to an average increase of nearly $116 per household over the course of the year.
The price hikes have been particularly severe in certain regions, with residents of Washington DC experiencing a staggering 23% jump in electricity costs, followed by Indiana with a 17% rise and Illinois with a 15% increase. The Midwest has been the hardest hit, with utility costs adding to an underlying 4.9% average increase in the unit cost of electricity.
Alongside skyrocketing electricity bills, US households have also faced a 5.2% average increase in gas prices over the past year, according to the EIA. This has led to a spike in power disconnections for unpaid bills across many states, with some families forced to forgo other essentials to keep the lights on.
“You have some states where the power bills are instead up 10% or 20%, which is why so many people are angry about this now,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA). “Instead of reducing electric bills by 50%, the president’s actions have raised the cost of home energy for all Americans.”
During his 2024 election campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to tackle power bills, vowing to cut the total electricity bill for American households by 50% within the first 12 months of his presidency. However, this rhetoric has sharply reversed, with Trump recently dismissing the affordability crisis as a “hoax” and a “fake narrative” invented by his political opponents.
The administration’s energy policy has centered on ramping up oil and gas drilling, while tearing up environmental regulations and blocking numerous renewable energy projects. This agenda, coupled with directives to reverse the closure of ageing coal plants and restart the overseas export of liquefied natural gas, has ensured that Trump’s election promise had little chance of being met, experts say.
“The fundamental dynamic is that we are using more electricity than we did 12 months ago and the infrastructure isn’t keeping pace with that extra demand – if anything, we have fallen further behind,” said Abe Silverman, an energy transition expert at Johns Hopkins University.
As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, the Trump administration has also slashed federal assistance, eliminating tax credits for home energy efficiency upgrades and attempting to scrap a program that helps low-income households with their energy bills.
With the midterm elections looming, the broken promise on energy bills is likely to haunt the Republican party. Democrats and their allies have vowed to hold Trump and his fellow Republicans accountable for the soaring costs that are leaving American households struggling to make ends meet.
