Trump to Americans: You are not that important to me and oil wars make us rich

[Renew Deal]

President Donald Trump sought to play down rising oil prices and market volatility tied to the conflict with Iran on Thursday, arguing the United States benefits when energy prices climb.

“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. BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
-snip-

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-12-26?post-id=cmmni2wsy00003b6annlzejza

Once again, Trump is paying attention to how much money his oil buddies will make and not to how much it will hurt ordinary people.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Surprise, surprise...His Energy Secretary agrees

Energy Secretary Chris Wright: "Fortunately, the US produces more oil than we can consume -- we're a net oil exporter. So overall for the US economy, this isn't bad news."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-12T14:22:16.700Z

[NCDem47]

2. There's no "we"

How many Americans own oil and gas stock or get royalties?

[Coolgoober]

3. We?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. MaddowBlog-Trump and his allies pitch a new idea: Maybe higher gas prices aren't 'bad news'

We’ve reached the point at which the president wants consumers to be glad they’re paying more at the pump.

Trump, in late October: “With the Democrats, you’ll be paying , , and a Gallon.”

Trump, today, as gas prices approach the levels he warned about five months ago: “When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”

If Dems are lucky, the White House will keep pushing this line.

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-03-12T16:48:06.117Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-and-his-allies-pitch-a-new-idea-maybe-higher-gas-prices-arent-bad-news

It was against this backdrop that the Republican president rolled out a very different kind of message on Thursday morning. Just 17 weeks after he wrote, “Under President Trump, ME, Gasoline will come down to approximately $2 a Gallon,” Trump tried selling Americans on the opposite message.

“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,” Trump wrote.

Yes, we’ve reached the point at which the president wants consumers to be glad they’re paying more at the pump.

As a substantive matter, the problem with Trump’s claim is that the word “we” was doing a lot of work in his sentence. It’s true that the United States is producing a lot of oil, and it’s also true that higher prices help generate oil industry profits. But since the number of Americans who benefit from oil industry profits is very small, few will likely celebrate the hit to their wallets.

Complicating matters, Trump isn’t alone on this. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, downplayed the importance of rising gas prices in a podcast interview this week. And on Thursday morning, Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared on Fox News and pushed a line that was eerily similar to the president’s: “Fortunately, the United States, we produce more oil than we can consume; we’re a net oil exporter. So overall for the U.S. economy, this isn’t bad news.”

This is a message that Republicans will continue to embrace in the coming weeks and months if Democrats are extremely lucky.