U.S. Oil Industry Reports Blowout Profit as Trump Brags About It

The U.S. oil industry has made more than $130 billion in profit during the Iran war—while normal Americans continue to pay exorbitant prices at the gas pump.

The New York Times reported that the country’s 50 largest oil and gas companies raked in a massive profit from April to September. The $130 billion profit margin eclipses the $47 billion that these companies made during the same six-month period last year. The last comparable economic windfall was after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the oil and gas industry made slightly higher profits.

American households have spent $1,100 on fuel alone since the war began. That’s an extra $147 billion all together, according to Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab.

Once again, it is massive corporations that stand to gain the most from violence and conflict.

President Trump said it himself a few days ago.

“And while oil prices are temporarily high … the United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars.... Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars ‘cause of what’s happened in the Middle East … trillions of dollars,” he told a rally crowd in Georgia on Saturday. “My people said, ‘Please don’t mention that sir, because people are paying a little higher’ ... I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it: We’re making a freaking fortune.’”

When the president says “we,” he means Exxon, Chevron, and Valero. Not you.

President Donald Trump’s allies won’t stop canceling public appearances, sending an ominous message to voters ahead of the midterm elections.

After Trump canceled—and then rescheduled—two rallies in Kansas and Iowa over the weekend, it appears that the rest of the president’s team is still tapped out. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton all canceled upcoming appearances.

Vance canceled a Friday afternoon appearance in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he was expected to make an announcement related to his war on fraud. It wasn’t immediately clear what the announcement was regarding, but Vance previously referred Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation based on the vice president’s wild accusations that they allowed sweeping social services fraud.

Other federal officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, were still scheduled to appear in St. Cloud on Friday. Oz, the daytime television host Trump picked to run the CMS, has previously spread faulty claims of health care fraud in other blue states.

Rubio, who will chair the G20 meeting in Atlanta this weekend, canceled plans for a group photo with foreign ministers after several European diplomats refused to pose with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov.

And Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate in Texas, also canceled a campaign rally scheduled for Sunday in El Paso. The Texas attorney general held a sparsely attended campaign event in Abilene on Thursday. The latest polls show Democratic candidate James Talarico with a slight edge over Paxton.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Atlanta Friday for a G20 foreign minister’s meeting in Atlanta, and it’s drawing backlash from U.S. lawmakers and allies alike.

Lavrov is the highest profile Russian official to visit the U.S since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His arrival upset other assembled diplomats, who didn’t want anything to do with him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was forced to scrap the traditional photo with all of the foreign ministers after European leaders refused to stand next to Lavrov and threatened to walk out. Usually, the summit begins with the photograph.

At home, Republicans too are outraged by the decision to invite Lavrov. Representative Don Bacon condemned the visit on X, saying, “Lavrov should not be allowed in the country.

“As long as Putin is waging war against Ukraine and bombing cities, Russian leaders should not be welcomed in any of these forums. They lead a pariah state,” Bacon posted on Wednesday.

Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also condemned the visit in a joint letter last month. The group was made up of Republicans Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Roger Wicker, Jerry Moran, Thom Tillis, John Curtis, and Alan Armstrong, in addition to Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse, Michael Bennet, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Tim Kaine, and Ruben Gallego.

“President Putin bears sole responsibility for launching Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Allowing him to participate in a G20 Summit in the United States raises serious concerns about legitimizing and normalizing a government that continues to attack Ukrainian civilian targets every day,” the senators wrote.

Meanwhile, another key player in the G20 is missing. South Africa, which is part of the international forum, did not attend amid various disputes with the Trump administration, and representatives from the country said their absence wasn’t by choice.

“We have consistently maintained that our nonparticipation is not voluntary,” Phindile Kunene, spokesperson for South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola, told the Associated Press.

It’s pretty clear that the Trump administration is trying to force other countries to deal with Russia even as Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to make any concessions in the war with Ukraine. Excluding South Africa, which is actually a founding member of the G20, this also suggests that the White House is ignoring international concerns.

President Donald Trump completely lost it Thursday when asked about canceling multiple rallies ahead of the midterm elections.

Speaking to reporters, Trump exploded when one asked him why he’d canceled rallies in Kansas and Iowa over the weekend.

“So, you not going to Kansas has nothing to do with being sick of travel?” the reporter asked.

“Oh you’re sick to ask that question. You are sick. Who are you with?” Trump snapped.

“I’m with Reuters,” the reporter said.

“You are a sick guy, Reuters is terrible, by the way,” Trump said. “Look at this guy, he’s way out of shape. Look at how badly—he comes to me, ‘Sir you’re not gonna go to Kansas.’ No, I’m not going to Kansas because he’s doing very well. I’m gonna do a tele-rally. Tomorrow I’m doing Florida.

“He says ‘What’s the reason’—after doing, what, 28? He says, ‘What’s the reason for this, sir, that you’re not going to Kansas?’ You know what the reason is? I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas,” Trump raged. “I’m going to do Florida tomorrow, and I’ll do—if something else comes up—but he said, ‘You’re not going to Kansas, sir, are you feeling well?’ You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.”

Trump’s outburst seemed to come out of nowhere, especially considering that the reporter’s question hadn’t been about the president’s health at all. Moments earlier, when a reporter had asked Trump about his health, the president had simply responded that he felt “good.” It seems that it was the word “sick” that sent him over the edge.

Questions about cancellations may have gotten under the president’s skin—by Friday morning, the rallies in Kansas and Iowa were back on.

Republican Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton’s office is suing election officials in his state’s largest county for helping people of color to vote.

Paxton’s lawsuit claims that a get-out-the-vote advertisement campaign from Harris County’s office essentially constitutes reverse racism because it encouraged Black and Latino voters (groups with historically lower access to elections) to vote. Harris County is Texas’s most diverse county, notably housing Houston.

“By specifically directing voting advertisements to these and many other racial or ethnic ‘detailed targeting’ terms, it is readily apparent that Harris County is attempting to increase the likelihood that only certain racial and ethnic groups—but not all—will vote,” the lawsuit reads. “In any event, there can be no legitimate reason for Harris County to intentionally target voter advertisements toward this peculiar assortment of African American, Asian, and Latino ethnicities, cultural interests, and countries, but not toward any European ethnicities.”

Harris County has already stopped running the ads, and Paxton has recused himself from this lawsuit, even though he is, of course, Texas’s current attorney general.

This lawsuit also comes as Harris County is shattering early voting records, with over 950,000 residents having cast their ballots and one day of early voting still left. The previous record for a nonpresidential election was 855,711 people in 2018.

“Ken Paxton filed this lawsuit in the final days of voting because he wants to stop Houstonians from going to the polls. He’s whining about ads that do nothing more than tell neighbors when to vote and where to get information about voting,” Texas Democratic Congressman Christian D. Menefee wrote online. “Paxton is upset that diverse voters across Harris County are making their voices heard. He doesn’t like that in this election, people are showing up in big numbers in neighborhoods like Third Ward, Acres Homes, Cypress, Tidwell, and Sunnyside.

“Remember this: Someone with as much power as the Texas Attorney General would only take desperate action like this lawsuit because he is scared,” Menefee continued. “I hope everyone in Harris County who is eligible to vote sees this lawsuit for what it is, and goes to cast their ballot in this election.”