President Donald Trump’s nine largest oil and gas holdings gained an estimated $1.5 million to $4.4 million during the first six months of the Iran war as independently managed investment accounts continued buying and selling energy stocks, according to an analysis of his financial disclosures and market data.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump’s largest oil and gas investments increased in value by an estimated $1.5 million to $4.4 million during the first six months of the U.S.-Iran war, while accounts holding those investments continued trading energy-company shares throughout a period of sharp oil-market volatility.
The estimate, first calculated by CNBC using Trump’s annual financial disclosure, corporate reports and FactSet market data, covers his nine largest positions in Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Kinder Morgan, Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero Energy and Williams Companies. The calculation measured changes from the Feb. 27 market close, the day before hostilities began, through Aug. 31.
The figures represent estimated paper gains rather than confirmed trading profits. Federal financial disclosures report investment values and transactions in broad dollar ranges rather than exact share counts or execution prices, making it impossible to determine Trump’s precise holdings or profits from individual sales. His Office of Government Ethics filing also shows that Trump’s annual disclosure was received June 29 and contains extensive schedules covering his investment assets and transactions.
Trump’s disclosed accounts recorded purchases and at least 23 sales involving the nine energy companies through June 29, the latest transaction date available in the records analyzed by CNBC. Separate reporting based on OGE disclosures has likewise documented continued purchases and sales of oil and natural-gas stocks while Trump oversaw the conflict with Iran.
The timing of some transactions has drawn attention because they occurred on days when developments in the war produced substantial moves in crude oil and energy stocks.
On March 2, the first trading day after the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, Trump’s accounts reported purchases in eight major oil and gas companies. The transactions included Exxon Mobil shares valued between $100,001 and $250,000. CNBC estimated that Trump entered the conflict with Exxon holdings worth between $3.2 million and $12.5 million and that the appreciation of those prewar holdings alone added approximately $176,000 to $690,000 in paper value by Aug. 31, before accounting for subsequent transactions.
On March 23, when expectations of de-escalation pushed Brent crude sharply lower, Trump’s accounts reported 16 energy-stock purchases and no sales, with disclosed values totaling approximately $163,000 to $570,000. The purchases included Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips 66.
Another transaction occurred April 7, when an account reported selling between $500,001 and $1 million of Exxon shares. Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran after financial markets had closed that day, and Exxon opened more than 6% lower the following morning. Because disclosures do not identify when the particular shares sold April 7 were originally acquired, the transaction’s actual profit cannot be calculated from the public records.
The disclosures establish that the transactions occurred, but they do not show that Trump personally ordered them, possessed advance knowledge about the trades or shaped government policy to benefit his investments.
CNBC said its reporting found no evidence that Trump or his investment managers traded using advance knowledge of government decisions or that his financial holdings influenced his administration’s Iran policy. The White House has also said Trump has no role in determining when investments in the accounts are purchased or sold.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle told CNBC that “Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold.”
Trump has similarly said that financial managers handle his investments and that he is not involved in their management. When questioned about his financial disclosures in July, Trump attributed gains in his portfolio more broadly to rising financial markets.
Government ethics groups nevertheless argue that independently managed accounts do not necessarily eliminate potential conflicts when a president remains aware of the industries in which he holds substantial investments. Their concerns center on the fact that presidential decisions can affect markets in which the president has a personal financial stake, even if other people execute the trades.
The appreciation of Trump’s energy holdings occurred during an extraordinary disruption to global oil supplies. The Government Accountability Office has described the Iran conflict as causing the largest disruption to global oil supplies on record, while crude prices have repeatedly reacted to military strikes, shipping disruptions, sanctions and developments around the Strait of Hormuz.
Pavel Molchanov, a senior energy-sector investment strategist at Raymond James, attributed the broader rise in energy prices to the war and resulting supply disruption, noting that oil is globally traded and that energy-market participants are broadly affected when supplies tighten.
Oil prices remained highly volatile Thursday. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate both moved above $100 per barrel amid renewed tanker attacks and disruption surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, illustrating the continuing sensitivity of energy markets to developments in the conflict.
Trump’s oil and gas holdings are one component of a much larger financial portfolio that includes extensive business interests outside the energy industry.
His foreign real-estate licensing operations generated $59.5 million in income during 2025, according to another CNBC analysis of his financial disclosure. More than 60% of that revenue came from projects in Gulf countries, including developments connected to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. CNBC reported that it found no evidence those payments influenced administration decisions or resulted in special treatment.
Those business interests have added to longstanding scrutiny from government-ethics organizations over the overlap between presidential authority and private wealth. Such scrutiny does not by itself establish that any particular policy decision was motivated by Trump’s personal finances.
The administration’s Iran strategy has simultaneously combined military operations with an expanding campaign of economic pressure.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” in August as an effort to further isolate Iran financially, restrict its access to international markets and increase pressure on countries and companies continuing to conduct business with Tehran. The administration expanded those sanctions again this week, targeting additional companies and individuals accused of supporting Iran and its regional proxies.
Vice President JD Vance has defended the broader strategy of combining military and economic pressure, while administration officials have argued that restrictions on Iran’s access to international financial markets can ultimately force Tehran toward terms acceptable to Washington.
Iran, however, has continued earning revenue from oil despite the U.S. naval blockade. Iranian Oil Ministry figures cited by the semi-official Fars News Agency indicated that Tehran transferred approximately $7.5 billion in oil revenue to its central bank from sales between March 21 and July 22. The Iranian figures have not demonstrated that the blockade has stopped all exports, although more recent U.S. data indicate sanctions and maritime restrictions have substantially reduced Iranian oil shipments.
The Trump administration has also taken steps to increase alternative sources of oil and rebuild U.S. emergency reserves.
Trump announced in late August that Venezuelan oil obtained through a new U.S.-Venezuela arrangement would be used to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Earlier in the war, the Energy Department had already begun releasing oil from the reserve as part of an international effort to mitigate the effects of disrupted global supplies.
The White House has argued that expanded access to Venezuelan oil will strengthen U.S. energy security and eventually provide lower-cost crude for replenishing the reserve.
Those policies — military action, sanctions, restrictions on Iranian exports, releases from emergency reserves and efforts to obtain additional supply elsewhere — have all unfolded during a period in which oil prices have repeatedly moved on developments involving the war.
That environment has also increased the value of many energy companies held in Trump’s investment portfolio.
The available disclosures establish that Trump retained substantial oil and gas investments as the conflict unfolded and that accounts containing those investments continued trading. They also show that the market value of his nine largest energy holdings rose substantially during the first six months of fighting.
What the records cannot establish is that the estimated $1.5 million to $4.4 million increase represents realized profit, that Trump personally directed any of the energy trades or that his administration’s wartime decisions were influenced by his financial interests.
CNBC specifically reported finding no evidence of advance-information trading or policy decisions motivated by Trump’s holdings, leaving the documented overlap between presidential decision-making, volatile energy markets and the president’s privately owned investments as the central issue drawing scrutiny.
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