Trump Claims U.S. Gains From Oil Disruptions as Gas Costs Rise

President Donald Trump said at a rally in Georgia on October 24 that the United States was making hundreds of billions of dollars amid Middle East oil-market disruptions, while acknowledging that Americans were paying more for gasoline. He said advisers had urged him not to emphasize the claimed gains because of higher fuel costs, but he proceeded to describe the country as making a fortune. Trump attributed the gains to developments in the Middle East and said buyers were turning to oil from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. He also referred to Venezuela and Greenland. His remarks did not provide records or a breakdown substantiating the hundreds-of-billions figure or showing how much, if any, represented company earnings rather than revenue received by the country. The claim remains an assertion by Trump, not an independently established measure of financial gains. He predicted gasoline prices would fall, but gave no timetable in the reported remarks. The national average for regular gasoline was about $4.29 per gallon on October 25, according to the American Automobile Association. That was down from roughly $4.49 a month earlier and up from $3.06 a year earlier. Those figures...