WATCH THIS SPACE: Oil and Gas Companies Begin Reporting Quarterly Profits as Americans Face Months of Pain at the Pump
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The world’s top oil and gas companies made more than $30 million every hour in unearned profit during the first month of Trump’s war
Trump promised oil and gas donors he would deliver if they raised $1 billion for his campaign
Washington, DC – Donald Trump once celebrated rising gas prices thanks to his war of choice in Iran because “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” – and of course, he was talking about his wealthy oil donors. In fact, the world’s top oil and gas companies made more than $30 million every hour in unearned profit during the first month of Trump’s war. Today, as oil and gas companies begin to report their first quarter profits, Americans are going to start finding out how much Trump’s billionaire buddies are raking in as everyone else struggles to make ends meet.
Donald Trump has long held a special relationship with the people he truly cares about most: his wealthy oil donors. In May of 2024, Trump gathered a group of oil and gas CEOs at the White House and made them a deal: if they raised $1 billion for his campaign, he would make it worth their while. And Trump has delivered. From gutting oil and gas’s clean energy competition, rolling back protections that would make them pay for polluting, and now his war of choice in Iran: the Trump presidency has been a windfall for rich oil CEOs. The American people, on the other hand, are paying more than $4 per gallon at the pump while facing skyrocketing prices on everything from their utility bills to groceries.
Here’s what to know as the profits roll in:
- If U.S. oil prices average $100 a barrel this year, American oil companies could receive a windfall of more than $60 billion.
- Oil executives have lined their pockets, selling $1.4 billion in stock during the first quarter of 2026 as share prices soared amid the oil shock caused by the war.
- Fuel prices have skyrocketed since the war began, with gasoline spiking to $4.17 per gallon and diesel to $5.67, costing Americans $24 billion more at the pump.
- As of April 21st, Americans have spent $24 billion more on gas and diesel since the war began. Here are just a few things that could have been done with that money:
- Funding the LIHEAP program more than five times over
- Providing the Medicare coverage for over 1.2 million Americans
- Providing the Medicaid coverage for 3.3 million Americans
- Feeding almost 36 million children school lunches
- Providing SNAP benefits for almost 9 million
- Investment analysts revised their earnings projections for Chevron upward by an average of about 40% due to Trump’s Iran war. The company is expected to see $4 billion in additional revenue because of rising oil prices.
- Chevron forecasted that its first-quarter upstream earnings would rise as much as $2.2 billion from the previous quarter.
- Analysts expect the company to post $3.2 billion in net income, compared with $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.