Elizabeth Warren blasts Trump for making millions on his oil holdings as Iran war drags on — and Americans pay the price at the pumps

Now he’s saying a new White House deal with Venezuela — “the biggest oil deal in world history” — “will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans.” As NPR reports, that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, his attitude on high prices appears to be shifting. When a reporter questioned him about inflation in June — indicating it was up 4.2% year over year in May — he appeared unconcerned, and said it would come down when the war was over.

“You know what I really love?” Trump said at the time. “I love the inflation.”

What he’s loving, according to Elizabeth Warren and her peers on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee — Minority, are profits from his oil and gas stocks, worth up to $15.5 million more this year than last.

The committee released a brief suggesting a link between Trump’s profits and Americans’ pain at the pumps.

“What happened?” Warren wrote on X. “He started a war with Iran this year — and sent oil and gas stocks soaring,” she wrote.

Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, denied any conflict on the president’s part, telling Moneywise that his portfolio is managed by third-party financial institutions via computer-based index-tracking portfolios like the Schwab 1000.

“Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold,” he shared in a statement with Moneywise. “All investment decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest.”

University of Minnesota Law School professor Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George Bush, disagrees.

Law prof says Trump has ‘substantial conflicts of interest’

Painter told Moneywise that there is no question the president is in conflict by holding oil and gas stocks amid the war.

“I am concerned the president has substantial conflicts of interest with his official duties,” he said. “We haven’t had this for a very long time.”

The last time presidents were in financial conflict was during the Civil War, he said, when a number of them held slaves amid a war over slavery.

And nor has any prior president held oil and gas stocks during an energy crisis, he added. For example, President Richard Nixon held no such stocks when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) countries cut off oil to the U.S. for its support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

“Nixon was a corrupt president, but at least he was not trading in oil company stocks during the energy crisis,” Painter told Moneywise.

Here’s a look at the billions of dollars that Americans are spending and that oil companies are making, along with congressional conflicts that Painter argues go far beyond Trump.

Oil profits spike alongside pain at the pumps

According to the Joint Economic Committee, Americans have spent $72.5 billion extra on gas since the war began, working out to an average $604 per household.

There’s no question that Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has driven up costs. In 2025, an average 20 million barrels of crude oil and oil products moved through the strait daily. By mid-August, CNN reported that figure had decreased to 4 million to 12 million barrels.

The White House reports that more oil is making it through the strait now, but prices are still elevated.

In the meantime, the Joint Economic Committee reports that oil companies have made $125 billion in profits this year, with U.S. multinationals Exxon Mobil netting $14.7 billion and Chevron $12 billion in the second quarter alone.