What did Donald Trump do today?

He said "we" get rich when oil prices go up, when in fact what happens is "we" pay more money for oil.

Gas prices have risen sharply and steadily since Trump launched an attack on Iran, and that's before oil supply shocks from the closure of the Persian Gulf kick in. Even for Americans who don't drive, that's a real economic problem, because rising fuel prices are a major driver of inflation: when it costs more to make and ship goods, it costs more to buy them. 

Oil prices have swung wildly in the last few weeks, as Trump has veered between insisting that the war is over or barely started. Trump draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve down to the dregs (after breaking an Inauguration Day promise to refill it) drove prices down temporarily; unprotected tankers on fire in the Persian Gulf drove them back up.

 

Today, Trump used his private microblogging service to insist that this was all good news, actually, writing that "The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money."

In reality, "we" Americans lose money when prices rise, especially when the price is for oil. 

Only oil companies, and politicians like Trump who they donate hundreds of millions of dollars to, profit from oil price spikes. (Trump explicitly demanded money from oil and gas companies during the 2024 campaign as a condition of representing their interests after the election.) Of course, most oil companies are not American. There are two big winners in the latest Trump oil spike. One is Russia, which is helping Iran target American military installations, and which is almost completely dependent on oil revenue. Trump loosened sanctions against Russian oil again today, which will make the Putin regime even more money. The other is Iran itself, which is shipping more oil than usual because its own tankers are the only ones that can move through the Gulf without fear of destruction.

Trump hasn't always thought high prices for heating oil and gasoline were good things. He campaigned on the promise of cheap gas, and since his return to office has repeatedly lied about gas prices being much lower than they are—apparently in the belief that Americans wouldn't notice they weren't really paying $1.99/gal.

Why does this matter?

• A president who thinks "we" means oil companies and corporate donors isn't representing Americans. 

• A war that hurts Americans economically while somehow helping the economy of the nation under attack is so incompetent it shouldn't even be possible. 

• Promising to cater to the people who bribe you during a campaign is corruption, and this sort of thing is why it's a problem.