Oil Giants Post Record Profits as Trump Brags 'We're Making a Freaking Fortune'—And Americans Suffer at Pump
"Your pain is his paycheck," said one congressman of the president, who holds tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas stocks.
As oil giant Shell posted its third-quarter profits Thursday, the "freaking fortune" President Donald Trump mentioned last weekend at a campaign rally in Georgia became clear.
The president had noted that oil prices are "temporarily high," eight months after he joined Israel in launching an illegal, unprovoked war against Iran, setting off a conflict in which Iran swiftly closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation and sent energy prices soaring in the US and around the world.
"The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars," Trump said at the rally ahead of the midterm elections, in which the cost of living tops the list of priorities for voters. "I don't give a damn, I'm going to say it—we're making a freaking fortune."
The "we" he was talking about didn't appear to include the vast majority of Americans, who are paying an average of $4.23 per gallon for gas—up from $2.87 before the Iran War started.
But it did include Shell, which said Thursday it had doubled its profits in the last quarter from July-September, raking in $10.8 billion. In the third quarter of 2025, the company made $5.4 billion.
Shell's investors were also among those making a "freaking fortune," with the company planning to return $5 billion through its share buyback program over the next three months—up from $3 billion last quarter.
UK company BP and other US oil majors, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, are expected to post their third-quarter profits on Friday, but in France, TotalEnergies reported similarly skyrocketing income.
The company reported a record-breaking net profit of $8.3 billion from July-September, while the Spanish oil giant Repsol quadrupled its profits over the first nine months of 2026, raking in $5.6 billion.
French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told the TV network BFM that officials had asked TotalEnergies to "set an example" by passing on its savings to consumers, from the government's release of 10 million barrels of diesel from strategic reserves to distributors.
"We are asking Total to pass on the benefits of these released barrels—by lowering prices—and to continue capping prices for as long as necessary," said Bregeon. The government called on Total to reduce gas prices by 12-18 cents per liter, but CEO Patrick Pouyanne said Thursday the price reduction would likely amount to just 8-12 cents per liter.
In the US, households have paid an average of $856 more on gas since the war began—but the president has joined fossil fuel giants in reaping profits from the war that has killed more than 3,400 Iranians and more than 3,600 Lebanese people as the conflict has widened, as well as at least 21 US soldiers. Well over 100 people have been killed across other Middle Eastern countries.
With Trump continuing to trade stocks and bonds thousands of times this year, his personal holdings in the oil and gas industry have shot up to at least $22.5 million, and as much as $81.6 million. At the end of 2025 he held between $12.6 million and $46 million in the industry.
Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee in Congress said this week that Trump bought between $4.7 million and $17.5 million in oil and gas stocks from March-August, while also selling up to $5.4 million in stocks.
The White House has insisted that Trump's stock portfolio is "independently managed by third-party financial institutions," but Democratic lawmakers emphasized that the Iran War has allowed the president's personal wealth to balloon by as much as $35.8 million since February from oil and gas stocks.
With gas prices putting pressure on household budgets, said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), "your pain is his paycheck."
Philip Evans, a senior climate campaigner for Greenpeace, told Agence France-Presse that the soaring profits for oil giants and the president are being reported "against a backdrop of near-constant climate disaster both in the UK and worldwide," and called on the UK government to "tax these companies for the untold damage they're inflicting."
"These profits go beyond mere greed," said Evans. "They are openly villainous."
Voters wait to cast their ballots at a polling station in the predominantly Arab city of Tayibe during Israel’s legislative election on October 27, 2026. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
