Trump’s Oil and Gas Investments Continue During Iran War as Questions Grow Over Potential Conflicts of Interest

President Donald Trump’s investment accounts continued buying and selling shares of major oil and natural gas companies during the U.S. conflict with Iran, according to financial disclosure records covering the first half of 2026.

The transactions have drawn renewed attention because the war has disrupted global energy markets, pushed oil prices higher and increased the profitability of some major energy companies. Trump continues to own individual energy stocks while serving as president, although the White House says he has no role in deciding when those investments are bought or sold.

Trump’s accounts traded energy stocks during the conflict

According to the latest available filings from the Office of Government Ethics, Trump’s investment accounts bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares in oil and natural gas companies during the first half of the year.

The companies involved included major energy producers such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

One of the more closely watched transactions occurred on April 7, when Trump’s accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million worth of ExxonMobil shares. That was the same day Trump announced a ceasefire in the war with Iran.

ExxonMobil’s stock closed at $163.91 that day before Trump announced the ceasefire later in the evening. The shares opened approximately 6.5% lower the following day.

The filings do not necessarily provide an exact dollar amount for every transaction because federal financial disclosures generally report transaction values in ranges.

Trump’s portfolio is unusually active

The energy transactions are only a small part of a much larger investment portfolio.

A CBS News review found that Trump’s accounts carried out approximately 3,600 stock and securities transactions during the first three months of 2026. The total value of those transactions was estimated to fall between $212 million and $695 million.

The activity has made Trump’s personal investment portfolio an unusual issue for a sitting president. Unlike presidents who have placed their assets in blind trusts or largely avoided individual stocks, Trump continues to have holdings in individual publicly traded companies.

The filings also show that the trading continued as the Iran conflict developed, including during periods when fighting was temporarily interrupted by a ceasefire.

Oil stocks have benefited from the Iran conflict

The timing of the transactions has attracted particular scrutiny because the war has had a major effect on global energy markets.

The conflict has disrupted oil and gas production, shipping and exports across the Middle East. Concerns over supply shortages have pushed energy prices higher, benefiting many publicly traded oil and gas companies.

ExxonMobil, for example, reported $14.7 billion in second-quarter 2026 earnings, its strongest quarterly profit in four years. Reuters attributed the improvement in part to higher oil prices and stronger refining margins during the Middle East conflict.

Chevron also reported roughly $12 billion in second-quarter profit, according to an analysis released by Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee.

Together, the strong results demonstrate why energy stocks have become an important part of the financial story surrounding the conflict.

Congressional Democrats estimate Trump’s energy holdings have gained substantially

The issue received additional attention this week after the Democratic minority staff of the Joint Economic Committee released an analysis of Trump’s oil and gas investments.

The committee estimated that Trump held between approximately $12.5 million and $45.6 million in oil and gas stocks at the end of 2025. Based on the performance of those holdings through August 17, the committee estimated that the portfolio could have risen to between $17.2 million and $61.1 million.

That represents an estimated increase of as much as $15.5 million.

The committee also said Trump purchased as much as $3.6 million in additional oil and gas stocks during the first quarter of 2026, a period that included the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the beginning of the Iran war.

It is important to note that these figures are estimates, not an exact accounting of Trump's current portfolio. Federal disclosure forms use value ranges rather than precise dollar amounts, and the committee's calculations were based partly on holdings reported at the end of 2025. The estimate therefore does not necessarily capture all purchases and sales made afterward.

White House says Trump does not control the trades

The White House has rejected the suggestion that Trump personally decides which stocks are purchased or sold.

A White House spokesman said Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is managed independently by third-party financial institutions.

According to the administration, the holdings are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested using computer-based investment models designed to replicate major stock indexes.

The White House also says neither Trump nor members of his family have the ability to direct, influence or provide input about when securities are purchased or sold.

That distinction is important because the existence of a trade in Trump's account does not by itself establish that Trump personally ordered the transaction or knew about it at the time.

Experts say some of the trading may be automated

Some investment professionals have offered another explanation for the unusually high number of transactions.

David Salem, a portfolio manager at Hedgeye Asset Management, previously told CBS News that some of the transactions appeared consistent with tax-loss harvesting.

Tax-loss harvesting involves selling investments that have declined in value so that losses can potentially be used to offset taxable gains elsewhere in a portfolio.

Such strategies can be automated through sophisticated investment-management systems, particularly when an account uses direct indexing or similar approaches.

That means the large number of trades does not necessarily indicate that Trump or his family members were personally making thousands of individual investment decisions.

The conflict-of-interest debate

Even with the White House's explanation, the transactions have revived a longstanding debate over presidential conflicts of interest.

Critics argue that a president overseeing a military conflict that affects global energy prices should not continue holding individual oil and gas stocks that could benefit from higher prices.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has argued that Trump should not financially benefit from increased energy prices associated with the war.

Supporters of the administration, however, can point to the fact that the investments are managed by independent financial institutions and that federal law permits presidents and other government officials to own and trade individual securities.

The controversy therefore centers less on whether the transactions are automatically illegal and more on whether they create an appearance of a conflict between Trump's personal finances and decisions made by his administration.

Americans are facing higher energy costs

The political controversy is also unfolding against the backdrop of higher energy costs for consumers.

The Democratic Joint Economic Committee estimated that Americans have spent an additional $71.5 billion on gasoline since the beginning of the Iran war. That figure is a congressional minority-staff estimate and should not be interpreted as an independently established government total.

Meanwhile, the conflict has created major disruptions to global oil and gas supplies. The Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important energy shipping routes, has experienced significantly reduced traffic, adding another layer of uncertainty to the energy market.

Those disruptions have helped keep oil prices elevated and have contributed to strong earnings for several major energy companies.

What the disclosures reveal — and what they don't

The financial filings provide a detailed look at Trump's investment activity, but they do not prove that Trump personally directed any particular trade or that his presidential decisions were made to benefit his investments.

What they do show is that:

• Trump continues to hold individual oil and gas stocks.
• His investment accounts have continued to buy and sell energy shares during the Iran conflict.
• His accounts have traded shares of companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
• His portfolio is managed by third-party institutions, according to the White House.
• Energy stocks have risen significantly during the conflict as oil prices and energy-company profits increased.
• Congressional Democrats estimate that Trump's oil and gas holdings could have gained as much as $15.5 million in value this year, although the exact gain cannot be determined from the disclosure ranges.

The disclosures are likely to keep the issue in the spotlight as long as the Iran conflict continues to affect oil prices and Trump's administration remains directly involved in decisions that influence global energy markets.

For Trump, the central political challenge is not simply explaining why his investment accounts traded energy stocks during the war. It is convincing the public that those transactions were completely separated from presidential decision-making.

The financial filings show the trades. The White House says independent managers made the decisions. The continuing debate is whether that separation is enough to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest.