Democrats in Congress are alleging that Trump oil stock gains reached as much as $15.5 million this year, as energy shares climbed during the war with Iran. The claim comes from Democratic staff on the Joint Economic Committee, who analysed the president’s publicly filed financial disclosures.
The disclosure for 2025 shows Trump reported owning between $12.5 million and $45.6 million in oil and gas stocks. The committee’s analysis estimates those holdings rose about 39% on average through 17 August, putting their possible current value somewhere between $17.2 million and $61.1 million.
How the committee reached its estimates on Trump oil stock gains
Federal financial disclosures require officeholders to report assets in broad ranges rather than exact figures, which means any calculation of gains is itself an estimate. The committee’s analysis assumes Trump kept all the positions he disclosed at the end of last year, without selling. Because those ranges are wide, the precise gain cannot be established with certainty.
Among his largest reported energy holdings were Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Shares in Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum, which he also reported holding, have more than doubled since the start of the year, according to the committee’s findings.
The Trump Organisation has previously told CNBC that Trump’s investments are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent financial institutions that hold ‘sole and exclusive authority’ over investment decisions. It has said Trump and his family receive no advance notice of trades and provide no input into individual investment decisions. The White House and the Trump Organisation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Venezuela purchases and the Iran war backdrop
The Democratic staff report also found that Trump bought as much as $3.6 million in additional oil and gas stocks in the first three months of 2026, including purchases of Chevron shares in the weeks after the U.S. operation in Venezuela.
That operation carried significant consequences. According to the New York Times, U.S. forces seized Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January. The move immediately stirred attention in energy markets, in part because of Chevron’s deep involvement in the country. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Chevron currently has three joint ventures with PdVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company, and is the only large U.S. company still active in the country. Following the developments in Venezuela, Chevron shares rose 5% on Wall Street, according to The Guardian.
The broader backdrop to the committee’s analysis is the Iran war and its effect on global energy prices. The Democratic staff report estimates that major oil and gas producers recorded about $125.2 billion in profits during the first half of 2026, while Americans spent an estimated $71.5 billion more on petrol since the war began. The report links Trump’s oil stock gains directly to the run-up in oil prices that the conflict produced.
A portfolio already drawing scrutiny
The Venezuela and Iran findings add to wider questions about the scale and activity of Trump’s personal investment portfolio. CNBC previously found that Trump reported more than 21,000 securities transactions across eight investment accounts in 2025, with those accounts holding at least $858 million in assets. CNBC has linked JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, UBS and Stephens Inc. to at least four of those accounts.
Democrats are expected to investigate Trump’s stock trading should they win back either chamber of Congress in the November midterm elections. The Joint Economic Committee’s report is part of that mounting scrutiny, and it is unlikely to be the last word on the subject given how much of the underlying detail the disclosure rules leave ambiguous.
For now, the committee’s case rests on the assumption that the president held his disclosed positions throughout a period when energy markets moved sharply in his favour.
