Trump says his people told him not to brag about oil money, then brags about ‘a freaking fortune’

At his Saturday night rally in Perry, Georgia, Trump told a crowd of people who buy gas that oil prices “are temporarily high” and will be “falling dramatically” once the war is over. Then he got to the good part, for somebody. The US oil and gas business, he said, “is making hundreds of billions of dollars,” and with Venezuela and Greenland thrown in, “we’re making hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars.” Those are his numbers.

He knew how it would sound. “But my people said, please don’t mention that, sir, because people are paying a little higher.” He even wrote the headline for us: “President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump. That’ll be the headline.” And then he said it anyway: “But I said, I don’t give a damn. I’m going to say it.” The oil money, in his words: “a freaking fortune.”

So here’s the pump. On Friday the national average for regular was $4.29 a gallon, down about 20 cents on the week but more than $1 higher than a year ago, AAA told the El Paso Times. In Georgia it was $3.69, up 90 cents on a year ago, and diesel was $5.73, up $2.26, according to AAA figures compiled by Stacker for WSB-TV. By our math, filling a 15-gallon tank in Georgia costs $13.50 more than it did a year ago. Diesel, the stuff tractors run on, costs about two-thirds more. He bragged about loving farmers twice that night.

He did say “you’re still paying lower than Biden and Obama,” which is his claim, and that the pump prices “are going to come down.” The money, apparently, has already arrived.