Donald Trump delivered a remarkable moment at a campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday, celebrating what he described as enormous profits from America’s oil and gas industry even as drivers across the country struggle with higher fuel prices.
And perhaps the most revealing part wasn’t the boast itself.
It was Trump’s admission that his own advisers had warned him not to make it.
Speaking about the economic effects of the war in the Middle East, Trump told supporters that American energy companies were benefiting enormously from elevated oil prices.
“The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars,” he declared.
He pointed to Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana as states benefiting from increased energy production and demand.
Trump also invoked Venezuela and Greenland while making sweeping claims about the scale of America’s supposed financial windfall.
At one point, he suggested the gains amounted to hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars.
Those figures were Trump’s claims, not independently verified estimates of revenue flowing to the federal government.
But the president’s next admission was even more striking.
He revealed that people close to him had urged him to avoid celebrating the financial benefits while ordinary Americans were paying more for gasoline.
“My people said, ‘Please don’t mention that, sir,’” Trump told the crowd.
The reason, he explained, was that consumers were paying higher prices.
Trump insisted those prices would eventually come down, but he continued praising the money being made in the energy industry.
Then he appeared to anticipate precisely how his remarks would be received.
He imagined reporters accusing him of celebrating profits while families suffered at the pump.
“President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump,” he said, describing the headline he expected to see.
Rather than avoid that criticism, Trump announced that he intended to keep talking about the windfall anyway.
“But I said, I don’t give a damn. I’m going to say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.”
It was an extraordinary political contrast.
Trump was celebrating the financial benefits that high oil prices can bring to producers while acknowledging that those same prices create difficulties for consumers.
The distinction matters because the financial gains of private energy companies are not the same as money flowing directly into American households.
Oil producers can benefit when crude prices rise, but drivers and businesses that depend on gasoline and diesel generally face higher expenses.
For a family already struggling with groceries, housing and other essentials, an increase at the pump is another burden on the household budget.
And while some energy-producing communities benefit from increased investment, wages and employment, those gains are not distributed equally across the country.
Trump’s argument was that American energy production provides an economic advantage during a period of international instability.
He also predicted that fuel prices would fall substantially once the conflict in the Middle East was resolved.
But he did not provide a specific timetable or independently substantiated evidence for his enormous revenue estimates.
The president had made a similar argument at an earlier rally in Arizona, where he insisted that the United States was benefiting from higher oil prices while maintaining that he wanted gasoline to become cheaper.
Saturday’s remarks, however, added a new twist: the acknowledgment that his own team understood how politically damaging the message could sound.
Trump knew the criticism before anyone had written it.
He even repeated it to the crowd.
Then he brushed it aside and returned to celebrating the money.
For Americans facing higher costs at the gas pump, that may be the most memorable part of his remarks — not the promise that prices will eventually fall, but the president’s enthusiasm for a windfall they may never personally see.
Trump: "Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars on oil. and then on top of it we have Venezuela, and we have Greenland! ‘Cause Greenland has a lot of oil. We’re making trillions of dollars. But my people said ‘please don’t mention that, sir, because people are paying a little higher’ … we’re making a frickin’ fortune"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2026

Well yeah the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Trump is one of those who is getting richer. He started his (and Netanyahoo’s) War with Iran precisely because he knew that he and other rich people would get richer thereby. “…but woe to those through whom these things come.” (Jesus in Luke 17:1) Chump (and Netanyahoo) will find out precisely what that woe will be after The Mid-Term Elections are over (Allah Willing). Amen!?