MEMO: Big Oil to Announce Q2 Profits After Raking in $40 Billion in Q1

July 16, 2026

Overview

Oil and gas companies will begin to report their second quarter profits next week, and if the $40 billion they raked in during Q1 is any indication, they could pull in even more thanks to Trump’s war of choice in Iran. While ultra-wealthy Big Oil companies make billions in profits, Americans have spent $69 billion more at the pump since Trump kicked off his war. All of this is happening as Trump has made it clear he doesn’t care about Americans’ financial situation, saying so repeatedly over the last several months — and in advance of House Republicans introducing their budget bill asking for $95 billion more for Trump’s war and no real relief for the American people.

At a closed-door meeting with wealthy donors at Mar-A-Lago in 2024, Trump offered oil and gas executives a “deal” if they donated a billion dollars to his campaign. Now, over a year into his presidency and nearly six months into his war, Trump has made good on his promise. Some of those same oil and gas companies more than doubled their profits in Q1. Trump’s recent financial disclosures, showing that he owns millions of dollars worth of stocks in Big Oil companies – including Exxon and Diamondback – revealed the true scope of his own benefit at the expense of the American people. The oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who raised $75 million from the oil and gas industry to elect Trump, has reportedly had an outsized influence on Trump’s energy policies, including downplaying the risks of Trump’s disastrous war of choice.

Given his hand-in-glove relationship with the industry, it was laughable when, just last month, Trump claimed on Truth Social that he had directed the Department of Justice to investigate Big Oil for “gouging” customers at the pump just hours after declaring at a speech in Pennsylvania that “we got to win the midterms.”

Continued Pain for American Consumers

While Trump and Big Oil laugh all the way to the bank, American families have struggled to make ends meet. A new report from Climate Power and Center for American Progress Action Fund found that Trump and congressional Republicans have cost American families at least $2,000 through skyrocketing spikes in gas prices, utility bills, health care premiums, and essential goods. Well before Trump sent gas prices skyrocketing, he gutted domestic clean energy projects, taking out Big Oil’s competition and spiking utility costs by 18% on average across the country.

Get the Facts:

Records Broken at the Pump: Gas prices have remained consistently high since Trump’s war of choice, spiking to $4.50 a gallon, the highest level since August 2022. Some states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, have seen diesel prices hit record-highs since the beginning of the war. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve reached its lowest level since 1983, with energy experts warning that skyrocketing energy costs will “get worse before they improve.” The average American family has already spent $285 more at the pump since Trump started his war. Now, as Trump launches new strikes against Iran, oil prices are rising yet again, threatening to spike energy costs even higher, with diesel already back above $5 a gallon.
Shipping and Travel Costs Are Skyrocketing: The conflict with Iran isn’t just raising gas prices; it’s driving up the cost of everything from groceries to summer vacations. The cost of a summer cookout has surged by 9%, with beef prices surging by 17% since last year. Airfare has also jumped by 27% as airlines add fuel surcharges and baggage fees.
Sabotaging Energy Stability: Instead of protecting consumers from volatile global markets, Trump has actively worsened the crisis by sabotaging American clean energy. His policies have canceled or stalled almost 400 energy projects representing $74.3 billion in investments. These projects would have generated enough power to support 20.7 million homes. By choosing war over wind and solar, Trump has left the U.S. economy uniquely vulnerable to global price shocks, all to keep the country tethered to the expensive, unreliable, volatile fossil fuels that benefit his billionaire donors.
Bill to Clawback Big Oil Profits: While Trump’s war in Iran continues to hurt Americans yet bolster oil and gas executives’ bottom lines, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17) have introduced The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act with zero Republican co-sponsors to curb potential profiteering by oil companies and provide Americans relief at the gas pump.

The Bottom Line

While Trump’s billionaire oil donors get even richer, American families are paying thousands of dollars more thanks to the Trump-GOP cost-of-living crisis. Trump promised Americans that he would slash energy costs in half and end needless wars, but instead, the average family has paid an additional $213 for their utility bills since he took office and he has engaged the U.S. in multiple costly conflicts. Republicans in Congress have happily rubber-stamped Trump’s reckless agenda, voting again and again to raise costs for their own constituents in order to stay loyal to Trump.

For Trump and his out-of-touch, ultra-wealthy donors, a couple thousand dollars might not mean much, but hardworking families who are struggling just to make ends meet are feeling the pain. As oil and gas companies announce their profits over the next few weeks, it will become clearer than ever that Trump’s priorities lie with himself and his billionaire donors, not with the American people.