Trump says U.S. making a 'fortune' on oil with gas at $4.29

Where it comes from: Trump tied the money to the Iran conflict. "Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what's happened in the Middle East," he said, adding that buyers are "coming to Texas," Oklahoma and Louisiana for oil, uPolitics reported. He made a similar point at an Oct. 14 rally in Arizona, HuffPost noted. Brent crude was near $116 a barrel Friday, close to a six-month high, HuffPost reported.

Reaction: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, posted, "Congratulations to Big Oil on their very successful, record-profits presidency," the Daily Beast reported. Former Obama adviser David Axelrod wrote that it was "not a great closing message." A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast the president "has always been clear about temporary disruptions as a result of the Iran conflict" and that the administration "will continue to deliver economic wins."

Strongest case for Trump's point: higher oil prices bring more money to U.S. producers and oil states, and Trump argues the price is tied to a temporary conflict. Some supporters agree. At an Oct. 21 rally in Greenville, North Carolina, supporters told Fox News that higher gas prices were worth it to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. "I'll take that any day," one said.

Strongest case against it: industry revenue is not the same as household savings, and voters are paying more at the pump. In the New York Times/Siena poll of likely voters taken Oct. 12-19, 73% disapproved of Trump's handling of gas prices and 24% approved, according to Siena. Consumer prices were up 3.7% from a year earlier in September, the Daily Beast reported.

Weak spot (critics): some posts and headlines say Trump said he doesn't "give a damn" about gas prices. In the HuffPost and uPolitics transcripts, the expletive came right after he described the headlines he expected, not prices themselves.

Weak spot (Trump): Trump also said Americans are paying less than under Presidents Biden and Obama, uPolitics reported. What the evidence shows: AAA's $4.29 average is below the $5.02 record of June 2022, under Biden, but well above the $3.06 of a year ago.

What's still unknown: whether prices ease before the Nov. 3 election, and whether the remark moves voters in close races. Trump said his own aides had urged him not to raise the topic, according to the Daily Beast.

Quotes from the Oct. 24 rally at Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia, follow HuffPost's transcript (via Yahoo News) and uPolitics; the Daily Beast's version differs slightly ("freaking fortune" and "hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars"). The expletive is bracketed as HuffPost printed it. Reactions from Gov. Gavin Newsom and David Axelrod and the White House statement are as reported by the Daily Beast. Gas and diesel figures are AAA's national averages for Oct. 25, 2026. The poll figures are from the Siena Research Institute's release of the New York Times/Siena survey of 3,494 likely voters, Oct. 12-19. The Brent price is as reported by HuffPost for Friday, Oct. 23. US Brief could not find an AP or Reuters account of the remark at publish time.