President Donald Trump turned on the energy industry Monday, publicly rebuking ExxonMobil and Chevron for what he called excessive profits as a wave of second-quarter earnings reports confirmed that the US-Iran war has delivered one of the most lucrative periods in the history of global oil and gas.
"Based on a shortage, they're making too much money," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on August 3, 2026, according to the Washington Examiner. "I don't like it, and I should be the last one to say it because I'm a big free enterprise guy. Nobody bigger."
The president went further, warning both companies to pass some of those gains back to consumers: "They're going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price," Trump said.
The remarks landed one day after both companies disclosed their strongest quarterly results in years.
Chevron posted second-quarter earnings of $12 billion, up from $2.5 billion in the same period of 2025 (a gain of nearly 400%) while ExxonMobil reported profits of $14.5 billion, more than double its year-earlier result, according to the companies' earnings releases. Together, the two oil majors booked a combined $26.5 billion in second-quarter net income, according to UPI.
The US-Iran conflict's effect on consumers has pushed up US crude oil prices by approximately 20% from the February 28, 2026 start of hostilities, with US oil futures averaging around $92 per barrel from April through June, about 27% higher than the first quarter according to CNBC. At the pump, gasoline prices averaged about $4.10 per gallon nationwide as of August 3, 2026, nearly 40% higher compared to the $2.98 per gallon that drivers paid on February 27 before the war started, according to AAA data.
On June 24, 2026, Trump accused Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP of price gouging and ordered a Department of Justice investigation, arguing crude prices had fallen roughly 36% without pump prices following suit. That probe remains active even as the president has now broadened his criticism to the companies' overall profit levels.
For advisors tracking the energy sector's impact on client portfolios, the tension between geopolitical risk and earnings upside has been a defining theme of 2026. InvestmentNews has reported extensively on how energy stocks have served as a hedge during this conflict, with the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) up more than 36% year-to-date.
The earnings surge is far from an American story alone. Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil exporter, reported a jump in second-quarter adjusted net income on August 4, 2026, with revenue growth driven primarily by higher prices for crude oil, refined products, and chemicals.
The profit windfall extends to Canada as well, though with a critical difference. Canadian oil and gas producers anticipated sharply higher profits in 2026 but, at an April 2026 industry conference in Toronto, senior executives signaled those gains would flow back to shareholders rather than fund new capital investment, according to EnergyNow.
Jon McKenzie, CEO of Cenovus Energy, one of Canada's largest oil sands producers, said in an interview at the conference: "We are a commodity-based business. When we see global prices rise for energy, we participate in that. But I don't think it's going to have any strategic or long-term impacts on anybody's operating plans at this point."
Canadian producers cited pipeline capacity constraints and ongoing regulatory uncertainty as reasons to hold back on new drilling, even as profits swell.
Meanwhile, British oil giant BP reported profits between April and June this year have more than doubled their year-ago level. The firm’s $5.7 billion profit is its highest in four years. BP is to sell off its US renewable gas business Archaea and its North Sea oil business which it has operated for more than 60 years.
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