Donald Trump on August 4, 2026 publicly told ExxonMobil and Chevron to give back some of their massive profits to the public and lower consumer prices. He said the companies were making too much money from an oil shortage caused by the US-Iran war.

"They're making too much money based on a shortage. I don't like it," Trump said, according to The Guardian. He named both companies directly: "Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much money. They're going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price."

The remarks came as the two largest US oil companies reported combined profits of more than $26 billion for the quarter ending June 2026. Chevron posted its highest-ever quarterly profit of $12.2 billion, five times what it earned the same quarter a year earlier. ExxonMobil reported $14.5 billion, double its earnings from the same period in 2025 and its biggest quarterly profit since the price spike that followed Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Hours after Trump's comments, BP reported its own quarterly profit had doubled to $5.7 billion.

The profit surge is directly tied to what happened with oil prices during the Iran conflict. Oil traded at about $70 a barrel before the first US-Israeli strikes at the end of February 2026. Prices soared to $126 by the end of April, then fell back to around $85 a barrel by August 4. That drop sped up in early August after Trump said he would hold off on new strikes against Iran. Oil prices fell 7% to a three-week low on August 2 after Trump cancelled a planned attack on Iran, according to Reuters and AP.

Trump has been pushing on gasoline prices for weeks. In late June, he posted on Truth Social: "Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY." He told journalists that the drop in oil prices during the administration's June peace talks with Iran should have pushed US gas prices to $2.25 a gallon. As of early August 2026, AAA data showed US gasoline averaging $4.11 a gallon. The Trump administration has ordered the Justice Department to investigate potential price gouging, which means charging unfairly high prices during a shortage or crisis, in the retail energy sector.

Trump's August 4 comments followed an interview with Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, according to Al Jazeera, and came a day after his initial August 3 remarks criticizing the oil companies. Reuters reported that Trump "blasted" the companies after they reported huge second-quarter earnings, with the Iran war keeping oil prices high.

The clash between the White House and the oil companies was flagged as early as July 3, when Reuters reported that US oil companies were set to post their strongest quarterly profits in years, setting up a possible fight with the president over prices at the pump. Oil prices had spiked on June 10 after Trump said the US would attack Iran "very hard" if no peace deal was reached.

The broader context here is a president who started a war that drove oil prices up, and who now sees the profits from that price spike going to companies he thinks are charging too much. The gap between Trump's claimed fair gasoline price of $2.25 and the actual AAA-reported average of $4.11 is enormous. Part of the reason for that gap is that gas prices do not move instantly when oil prices change. Refining costs, delivery costs, and state taxes all sit between the price of a barrel of oil and the price you pay at the pump. It is a bit like a relay race: the oil price hands off the baton, but it takes time for the change to reach the finish line at your local gas station. Whether public pressure alone can close that gap is doubtful without new laws, which the Justice Department investigation may be pointing toward.

For the oil companies, the political risk is real but the tools to take back those profits are limited without action from Congress. A windfall profit tax, which is a special tax on companies that earn unusually large profits during a crisis, would require new legislation. The current Congress has shown little interest in new taxes on the energy sector. Trump's approach instead relies on public shaming and the threat of regulation, a strategy that has worked only sometimes in the past. What is clear is that the Iran conflict's direct role in boosting oil company profits has created an awkward situation for an administration that is both running military operations and dealing with consumer frustration at the gas pump.

The latest sign of de-escalation, Trump's cancellation of a new attack on Iran and the resulting oil-price drop, may ease some of that pressure. But with oil still at $85 a barrel and gasoline at $4.11, the gap between what Trump wants and what the market is delivering remains wide.