President Trump bristled Monday at Big Oil’s huge windfall amid the war in Iran, arguing that the country’s largest oil companies should give some of their record profits to the American public.
“I don’t like it,” Trump said in the Oval Office, when asked about the eye-popping earnings reported by ExxonMobil and Chevron last week.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
ExxonMobil reported making $14.5 billion in the second-quarter of 2026 – double what it made over the same period of time last year – and the $12 billion Chevron raked in was the most the company has made in a single quarter in six years.
Their soaring earnings came as the Iran war pushed oil prices at times to above $100 a barrel – and gasoline skyrocketed up to an average of $4.56 per gallon this spring.
“They’re making too much money, okay, based on a shortage,” Trump fumed.
“I don’t like it, and I should be the last one to say it because I’m a big free enterprise guy,” he continued. “Nobody bigger.”
The president continued, “Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much money.”
“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, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price,” he argued.
“I’ll say it loud and clear. I’m not happy about it,” Trump declared.
The president predicted that gasoline prices “drop through the floor” when the US is “finished with Iran.” The current price at the pump for a gallon of regular ($4.09) is nearly $1 higher than it was at the same time last year.
Earlier Monday, Trump criticized Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on social media after the oil executive touted his company’s efforts to ramp-up oil and gas production amid a “somewhat fragile and uncertain” energy market in an interview with Fox Business’s “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo.
