President Donald Trump said on Saturday that “our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East,” moments after telling a rally in Georgia that oil prices were “temporarily high” and would fall “as soon as that war is over,” a reference to the U.S. conflict with Iran.
Trump made the remarks at a rally at Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia, for Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to C-SPAN’s video of the event. He arrived at nearby Robins Air Force Base, the White House rapid response account posted on X.
The comments came during a passage on the war, in which Trump told the crowd that Iran “had 159 ships. Now they’re all at the bottom of the sea,” and said U.S. strikes under Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury had “obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.” “We defeated them militarily, financially and otherwise,” he said.
“And while oil prices are temporarily high, we’ll be falling dramatically in a short period of time, as soon as that war is over, because there is so much oil,” Trump said, adding that ships were waiting in the Strait of Hormuz. “The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“So our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East because they’re coming to Texas, and they’re coming to Oklahoma, and they’re coming to Louisiana, and they’re taking that oil,” he said. He added Venezuela and Greenland to the tally, saying, “So we’re making hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars.”
Trump said his aides had urged him not to raise the subject. “My people said, please don’t mention that, sir, because people are paying a little higher,” he said. “I could just see the fake headlines. President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.” He then said he did not care and would say it anyway, adding, “We’re making a freaking fortune,” though the audio of that line is not fully clear. “And those pump prices are going to come down,” he said.
Trump did not explain how oil sales by U.S. producers translate into earnings for the country as a whole. Crude and fuel exports are handled mainly by private companies, while drivers pay the higher prices. The national average for regular gasoline was about $4.30 a gallon on Saturday, up from about $3.07 a year earlier, and diesel averaged about $6.34, compared with about $3.64 a year ago, according to AAA’s daily price survey.
Trump also told the crowd that “you’re still paying lower than Biden and Obama.” Federal data show U.S. gasoline is now cheaper than its June 2022 peak of about $4.93 a gallon under former President Joe Biden, but more expensive than in any month of Barack Obama’s presidency, when the monthly average topped out at about $3.91 in May 2011, according to the Energy Information Administration’s monthly series.
Global benchmarks have climbed as traders weigh the risk of renewed fighting. Brent crude settled at $116.72 a barrel on Friday, its highest since late April, CNBC reported. Iran’s envoy in Pakistan said on Saturday that Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz if Washington lifted its naval blockade, The Associated Press reported.
Democrats have blamed the war for the increase. Speaking at a rally in Cleveland earlier Saturday, Obama said Iran now had “veto power” over the strait and added, “This is the reason why the price of oil is up. Nobody disputes that. This is the reason the price of diesel is up,” according to C-SPAN’s Cleveland coverage.
Trump’s prediction that prices would fall once the war ends, his claim that the country is earning “trillions” from oil and his comparison with prices under Obama are his own characterizations. Fuel prices remain well above last year’s levels, and gasoline costs more than at any point in Obama’s tenure. No public response from Ossoff or other Democrats to Trump’s oil remarks had been posted on X as of early Sunday.