Everyone knows President Trump plays the role of political populist, and this week the role happened to be true — the truth his campaign rhetoric usually buries. Take his lashing Monday of American oil companies for “making too much money.”
Mr. Trump is worried about gasoline prices going into the midterm election, and for once his blame landed on the right culprit. Voila, Big Oil — the industry pocketing windfalls from a war-driven threat to oil supplies. “When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they ought to give some of that back to the public,” Mr. Trump said Monday. “And they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.” It’s unclear which company he was referring to — but he had previously attacked Chevron CEO Mike Wirth for not praising Mr. Trump as the reason for his company’s success. Cheer first, then answer for the windfall: that is the populist order, and the gratitude reveals the arrangement.
Oil and gas giants often make more money when oil prices rise, as they have, profiting from the threat to oil supplies from Mr. Trump’s war with Iran — the windfall that follows from the policy the President himself chose. And this is the same industry Mr. Trump cheers for producing more in the U.S. Does anyone need 12 times last year’s profit to drill the next well? Which is it, sir — the windfall, or the public?
As it happens, oil and gas giants say they distribute profits to the public via dividends to shareholders, many of whom are retirees. A dividend to a well-off investor is not a dollar back to the family paying at the pump. Chevron this week announced a bonus for its employees; fine — pay the workers, then answer for the rest. A company can distribute a windfall and still have too much money left over when the public is paying higher prices.
But speaking of someone making much more than the year before — would the President care to comment on his own profits? Mr. Trump’s recent financial disclosure report showed he made some $1.4 billion last year on crypto alone. That is a remarkable fortune. His Truth Social platform last Saturday launched a service that sells faster access to his often news-breaking posts — a fee for the headline, from the man who tells companies to cut prices. Oil prices — to take one example — often gyrate in response to his posts about the war.
Oil and gas giants make money by producing a valuable commodity. When supply shocks lift the price of that commodity and raise household fuel bills, the windfall is not merely a private triumph; it is a public burden converted into private gain. And the President who banks $1.4 billion in crypto and charges admission to his own news is turning public office into another revenue stream.
