American President Blasts Oil Companies

“WASHINGTON -- President Trump said Chevron and ExxonMobil are "making too much money" and should return some of their profits back to the public.

 

"When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public," Trump told reporters Monday. "And they better cut the retail price, the consumer price."

 

The U.S.'s largest oil companies reported blockbuster quarterly profits after Trump's war in Iran caused a historic dislocation in global markets that sent energy prices soaring.

 

At ExxonMobil, quarterly profits more than doubled from a year earlier to their highest level since 2022, at $14.5 billion. Chevron had its highest quarterly earnings on record, at $12.1 billion.

 

Exxon and Chevron declined to comment.

 

The national average price of gasoline topped $4.55 a gallon in late May on oil prices around $100 a barrel. Prices at the pump marched higher for several months earlier this year as skirmishing off and on in Iran kept the Strait of Hormuz mostly closed.

 

The waterway is a pinchpoint in the global energy market. As much as 20% of the world's daily oil needs flowed through the strait before the war started in February.

 

Analysts said Trump and the oil industry have few options to mitigate high prices -- and many have been tried. Large withdrawals from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve since spring have left the emergency stockpiles at the lowest levels since the early 1980s; commercial inventories have shrunk, too, as oil exports have surged.

 

Only reopening the strait can ensure global supplies climb high enough to sate the world's appetite, they said.

 

"He's trying to use the bully pulpit of the office to try to persuade companies to bring their prices down. We haven't seen it be successful in the past," said Glenn Schwartz, director of energy policy at consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group.

 

"Trump is acutely aware of the political consequences, with the midterms fast approaching, that high oil and high retail gasoline prices make things more difficult on incumbents, particularly Republicans."

 

Trump described himself as a "big free enterprise guy," but said he is frustrated by the oil industry's profits, which come as fuel prices increase as a result of his war in Iran. "You're surprised I'm saying it. I'll say it loud and clear. I'm not happy about it," he said of the industry's profits.

 

Trump's latest attack on the oil-and-gas industry echoes former President Joe Biden's criticisms. Crude prices soared in 2022 after events in Ukraine and with them Big Oil's profits, prompting Biden to accuse fossil-fuel companies of conflict profiteering and call on Congress to pass legislation to penalize companies.

 

Trump earlier in the day criticized Mike Wirth, CEO of Chevron, in a Truth Social post, after Wirth did an interview with Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo. Wirth highlighted the company's record oil-and-gas production and fuel-making in the U.S.

 

"The only thing he conveniently forgot to mention is that, without the genius, foresight, strength, and stability, of the TRUMP Administration, the Oil Industry, and our Country itself, would be DEAD!," Trump wrote.” [1]

 

1. World News: President Blasts Oil Companies. Levine, Marianne; Morenne, Benoit; Eaton, Collin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 04 Aug 2026: A6.