{"id":28743,"date":"2026-08-05T16:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28743"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:30:30","slug":"trump-slams-exxon-and-chevron-iran-war-windfalls-can-he-do-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28743","title":{"rendered":"Trump slams Exxon and Chevron Iran war windfalls. Can he do anything?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"0\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">President Donald Trump has said America\u2019s oil majors are making \u201ctoo much money\u201d as a result of the Iran war, and has urged companies to lower their prices or share the windfall profits they have enjoyed thanks to ongoing energy market disruptions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"1\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, the president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/donald-trump-big-oil-gas-prices-republican-midterm-hopes-12279664\">took aim at Chevron and ExxonMobil<\/a> for the substantial gains both reaped in the second quarter, driven primarily by elevated global fuel costs, and said that the two companies should distribute these earnings among their retail customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"2\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">\u201cAnd I should be the last one to say [that] because I\u2019m a big free enterprise guy,\u201d Trump said, while adding that the pair should \u201cgive some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"RelatedStoriesV2-module-scss-module__Hqo30W__container\" data-gtm-action=\"Read_More\" data-variant=\"v2\" data-loading=\"true\" aria-busy=\"true\" aria-label=\"Loading related stories\">\n<p><h4 class=\"RelatedStoriesV2-module-scss-module__Hqo30W__headlineText\"><span class=\"RelatedStoriesV2-module-scss-module__Hqo30W__headlinePrefix\">Read More<!-- --> on <\/span><span>News<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"4\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Separately, in a series of posts to Truth Social, Trump urged American oil companies to \u201cGet your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"5\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\"><em>Newsweek<\/em> contacted both companies on Monday for comment.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-oil-companies-enjoy-iran-war-windfall\" class=\"Heading-module-scss-module__qpyFFW__blockHeading\" style=\"background-color:inherit;color:inherit\">Oil Companies Enjoy Iran War Windfall<\/h2>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"7\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Global oil prices were pushed close to all-time highs this spring, as the effective blockade on ships through the Strait of Hormuz\u2014through which around a fifth of global oil typically flows\u2014severely restricted supplies, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/gas-prices\">gas prices<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/gas-prices-on-course-beat-2022-record-states-charging-most-12257924\">have likewise soared<\/a> to levels not witnessed since the 2022 energy crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"8\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">While these had begun to climb down in June on the back of progress in negotiations between the two warring sides, the national average for regular unleaded has since returned to $4.08 as of Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/\">according to AAA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"9\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">The boom translated into substantial earnings gains for both companies during the second quarter. Exxon posted $14.5 billion in profit for the three months which ended June 30, more than double the comparable period in 2025. Chevron\u2019s net income, meanwhile, came in 380 percent higher than the same quarter last year at $12.1 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"11\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, told <em>Newsweek<\/em> that the profits taken in by oil majors were primarily due to the Iran war and related shipping disruptions, but also the recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries which have \u201ccontributed to upward pressure on prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageBlock-module-scss-module__rUGLEG__container\">\n<div class=\"ImageBlock-module-scss-module__rUGLEG__imageContainer\" style=\"padding-bottom:66.6667%\"><img id=\"12285802\" alt=\"President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Washington.\" caption=\"President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Washington.\" src=\"AP Photo\/Alex Brandon\" sourcealt=\"\" sourceimage=\"AP Photos\" sources=\"[]\" blockindex=\"12\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 640px) 680px, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 640w, https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=750&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 750w, https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1000&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 1000w, https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1200&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 1200w, https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1360&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 1360w, https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1600&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1 1600w\" bad-src=\"https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1600&amp;quality=80&amp;webp=1\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"h-trump-hits-back-at-high-prices\" class=\"Heading-module-scss-module__qpyFFW__blockHeading\" style=\"background-color:inherit;color:inherit\">Trump Hits Back At High Prices<\/h2>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"14\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">In late June, Trump said he had ordered the Justice Department to \u201cimmediately start looking into\u201d whether oil companies were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/where-gas-prices-stand-in-each-state-as-trump-vows-gouging-investigation-12113118\">taking advantage of consumers<\/a>, whom he said were being \u201cgouged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"15\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">The American Petroleum Institute (API), the national trade association representing the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, rejected the price-gouging accusations in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/plummeting-gas-prices-could-bring-new-economic-headaches-12135645\">statement shared with <em>Newsweek<\/em><\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"16\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">&#8220;Our industry shares the goal of delivering relief at the pump and restoring stability to global energy markets,&#8221; said API spokesperson Bethany Williams. &#8220;Gasoline prices don&#8217;t move in lockstep with crude oil, especially during a major global disruption that is still affecting supply, refining and inventories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"17\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">The DOJ later urged states to join in the probe, calling on them to use \u201call tools available\u201d to investigate any misconduct that could be inflating retail gas prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"18\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Andrew Ferguson told state attorneys general in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/atr\/media\/1450951\/dl?inline=&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">July 3 letter<\/a> that they would be \u201cclosely monitoring petroleum markets\u201d for potential \u201cagreements between competitors to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"19\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">\u201cWe urge state law enforcers to join us in investigating illegal practices,\u201d they wrote, before adding that \u201cbusiness may not use market volatility as cover for anticompetitive practices, fraud, or any other lawlessness that harms Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-can-trump-change-oil-firms-behavior\" class=\"Heading-module-scss-module__qpyFFW__blockHeading\" style=\"background-color:inherit;color:inherit\">Can Trump Change Oil Firms\u2019 Behavior?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"21\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Experts who spoke with <em>Newsweek <\/em>believe there are tools at the administration&#8217;s disposal which could steer companies in the direction Trump hopes, but appear divided on whether the president will choose to use these.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"22\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">McNally told <em>Newsweek<\/em> the government could impose a windfall tax\u2014higher levies on companies that enjoy a sudden earnings jump due to external events\u2014a measure last taken on oil majors by President Jimmy Carter in the 1980s. He also cited the temporary price controls imposed by Richard Nixon in the 1970s, but said he did not believe Trump would take any such concrete actions to pressure companies to either \u201cgive some\u2026back\u201d of their war-derived profits or \u201ccut the retail price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"23\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">The economist Willy C. Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School, said Trump may also be under a misapprehension when it comes to the impact of market forces on supply and demand during the ongoing crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"24\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">\u201cThe high prices brought more supply onto the market. So now the President says he doesn\u2019t like the fact that high prices (and profits that are driven by a percentage margin) meant the oil majors made more money? That\u2019s the way the market works,\u201d he told <em>Newsweek.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"25\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">&#8220;So which way do you want it? Do you want high prices (and profits for some players) to bring more supply onto the market or not? It\u2019s hard to have it both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"26\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Tyler Gellasch, a former Senate investigator and President of the Healthy Markets Association, told <em>Newsweek <\/em>that there were both \u201cexplicit\u201d and \u201cimplicit\u201d actions the president could take if he truly wanted to pressure oil majors into dropping prices and sharing profits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"28\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">He noted that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/oil-and-gas\">oil and gas<\/a> industries benefit from tax subsidies and advantages that the Trump administration could work with Congress to roll back, or lean on a president\u2019s \u201clonger-term leverage\u201d and continue pressuring them publicly to change course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"29\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\">Gellasch said he would ordinarily expect an administration\u2014particularly a Republican one\u2014to refrain from such actions. However, he said that the Federal government has over the last 18 months engaged in \u201ca level of government interventionism that is something unlike what we have ever seen,\u201d citing such actions as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/republican-senators-sound-alarm-trump-intel-2119439\">equity stake it acquired in Intel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-module-scss-module__0ovlkG__blockParagraph\" blockindex=\"30\" articletitle=\"Trump Slams Exxon and Chevron Iran War Windfalls. Can He Do Anything?\" id=\"artend_links\">\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a new age of government interventionism in market forces,\u201d he said. \u201cWill that lead to ultimately lower prices for consumers? That remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump has said America\u2019s oil majors are making \u201ctoo much money\u201d as a result of the Iran war, and has urged companies to lower their prices or share the windfall profits they have enjoyed thanks to ongoing energy market disruptions. Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, the president took aim at Chevron&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets.newsweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26215660279128.jpg?w=1200&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}