• Lower income households look calm on one metric and panicked on every other. Only 33% of sub-$50K households expect to spend more on gas — but 34% are already very anxious, 46% call a price rise a "major impact," 42% say they'll cut how they drive. They're not spending more because they've already cut back. The floor isn't peace; it's constraint.

• Blame is split between Iran and Washington — 37% cite Middle East conflict, 23% point directly at US leadership — and trust almost nobody to fix it. Only 14% have "a great deal" of confidence in government or industry (8.8% of sub-$50k households). As one respondent put it: "I believe prices will soar because nothing is being done to combat it."

• Party ownership is the deepest fault line. The D–R gap on every measure — anxiety, budget fear, economic outlook, trust — dwarfs income differences. Who runs the White House shapes how Americans read the pump.

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