On a Saturday in Georgia, at a midterm rally, the president chose to say what his advisers had asked him to keep quiet: that American oil and gas companies are making hundreds of billions of dollars. It is a claim that sits uneasily beside the rising cost of the fuel that moves through ordinary lives, and it arrives just as the global benchmark for crude climbed to its highest point in nearly six months. The moment captures a familiar human tension, between the satisfaction of prosperity and the weight it places on those who pay for it at the pump.
Trump Boasts U.S. Is 'Making a Fortune' as Brent Crude Hits Near Six-Month High of $116
He said he could already see the headlines, and said it anyway
Mark
Why does this one rally line matter? Presidents talk up the economy all the time.
Mimi
Because of what he chose to talk up. He praised oil and gas companies making hundreds of billions, on the same weekend Brent hit roughly $116 a barrel. That's the same price drivers feel at the pump.
Mark
And his advisors told him not to say it.
Mimi
That's his account. He said they implored him to leave it out, then said it anyway and repeated it several times.
Luke
Worth flagging that the advisor detail comes from Trump himself. Nobody else has confirmed it.
Mark
What about the hundreds of billions figure?
Luke
Also his number. The reporting gives no breakdown, no company figures, no independent estimate. It's a claim, not a measured result.
Mimi
But the pattern is documented. He said something similar in Arizona on October 14, that the country was making more than ever because oil is so high.
Mark
So it's a deliberate message, not a slip.
Luke
It looks repeated, yes. Whether it's strategy, I can't say. The source doesn't tell us his intent.
Mimi
What he did do was name the criticism himself, the headline about people suffering at the pump, and wave it off.
Luke
And we don't yet know what gas prices actually are. Brent is a benchmark, not the price at the station. That's the gap to watch.
O Pulso
- The president pushed past his own advisers' warnings and repeated the claim that oil companies are making 'hundreds of billions' at a Georgia rally.
- Brent crude surged to roughly $116 a barrel on Friday, its highest in nearly six months, sharpening the sense that prices are climbing fast.
- He anticipated the backlash, rehearsing the headline about people suffering at the pump, and dismissed it rather than softening his message.
- The boast is now a repeated refrain across stump speeches, from Arizona in mid-October to Georgia, placing pump prices at the heart of the midterm fight.
- No independent figures confirm the profit total, and current gasoline prices remain unreported, leaving the political test still ahead.
On a Saturday in Georgia, at a midterm rally, the president chose to say what his advisers had asked him to keep quiet: that American oil and gas companies are making hundreds of billions of dollars. It is a claim that sits uneasily beside the rising cost of the fuel that moves through ordinary lives, and it arrives just as the global benchmark for crude climbed to its highest point in nearly six months. The moment captures a familiar human tension, between the satisfaction of prosperity and the weight it places on those who pay for it at the pump.
On Saturday, at a midterm rally in Georgia, President Donald Trump paused mid-speech to tell the crowd something his advisers had urged him to leave unsaid. The U.S. oil and gas industry, he declared, is making hundreds of billions of dollars. He admitted he had wondered whether to say it at all, then said it anyway, and then said it again.
He even sketched the coverage he expected: a story about the president celebrating money being made while people struggle at the pump. By his account, that picture did not trouble him. He was going to say it, and he made clear the country was, in his words, making a fortune.
This was no one-off. The claim has become a regular part of his stump speeches, following a rally in Arizona on October 14, where he argued the nation was earning more than ever because oil prices were so high. Georgia simply added that his advisers had counseled against it.
The backdrop is a sharp move in global markets. On Friday, Brent crude, the benchmark that anchors much of the world's oil trade, rose to roughly $116 a barrel, its highest in nearly six months. Such moves typically reach what drivers pay eventually, and Trump's imagined headline about suffering consumers suggests he understood that link.
The report itself rests on his words and the Friday price. The hundreds-of-billions figure is his own characterization, without independent confirmation or a breakdown by company. Current gasoline prices are not covered either. What the episode reveals is a president choosing to lean into high oil prices as the midterms approach, and the coming weeks will show whether pump prices and this profit message become a sharper campaign battleground.
On Saturday, speaking at a midterm campaign rally in Georgia, President Donald Trump stopped partway through his remarks to tell the crowd something his advisors had urged him to leave out. The U.S. oil and gas business, he said, is making hundreds of billions of dollars. He added that he had asked himself whether he should say it at all.
He did say it, and then he said it again. According to the account of the speech, Trump returned to the line several times, and he also played out what he expected the coverage to look like. He said he could already see the headlines, something to the effect of the president talking about all the money being made while people suffer at the pump. By his telling, that framing didn't bother him. He said he was going to say it anyway, and he put the point in blunt terms: the country, he said, is making a fortune.
The Georgia rally was not the first time he has done this. Trump has made the boast a regular feature of his stump speeches lately. At a rally in Arizona on October 14, he said the country was making more money than it had ever made because oil prices were so high. The Georgia remarks follow the same argument, now with the added detail that his own advisors had counseled against it.
The timing gives the comments an edge. On Friday, the day before the Georgia rally, Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, rose to roughly $116 a barrel. That is its highest level in nearly six months. Brent sets the reference point for much of the world's oil trade, and moves in it tend to show up eventually in what drivers pay for fuel.
That link is what Trump himself seemed to anticipate. His imagined headline, about people suffering at the pump, was his own way of naming the objection: that the profits he was celebrating arrive alongside higher costs for ordinary consumers. He did not dispute the premise in the portion of the speech that was reported. He dismissed the criticism and kept going.
The reporting here is limited to what Trump said and the Brent price on Friday. The figure of hundreds of billions of dollars is his own characterization, and the account does not offer independent numbers to confirm it or break it down by company or by what share reaches the broader economy. It also does not describe current gasoline prices, which is where the political question would be tested.
What the episode does show is how the president is choosing to frame high oil prices heading into the midterms. Rather than steering around the subject, he is leaning into it, and doing so repeatedly, from Arizona in mid-October to Georgia this weekend. Whether pump prices become a sharper campaign issue, and whether the profit message plays differently as Brent holds near $116, is the thing to watch in the weeks before voters go to the polls.
Citações Notáveis
The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.— President Donald Trump, Georgia rally
The country is making more money than it's ever made because oil is so high (paraphrased).— President Donald Trump, Arizona rally, October 14
Quer a matéria completa?
Leia o original em Yahoo News Singapore ↗
Politics & Governance