Chevron and Exxon earnings soar as Trump threatens price interventions

Here’s a fun paradox for you: the same president who greenlit a military operation that sent crude prices skyrocketing is now demanding to know why gasoline costs so much. Chevron and Exxon are reporting earnings that would make even the most seasoned Wall Street analysts do a double-take. Analyst forecasts peg Exxon’s adjusted net income for Q2 2026 at roughly $15.9 billion, while Chevron is expected to land somewhere between $9.9 billion and $10 billion. For context, those figures represent more than triple what each company earned in Q1, when Exxon posted $4.9 billion and Chevron came in at $2.8 billion. The profit explosion has a direct cause: geopolitical chaos in oil-producing regions, most notably the US military operation in Venezuela earlier this year that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro. That event sent crude prices surging and oil company share prices along with them. Chevron shares climbed roughly 6.4% and Exxon shares rose about 3% in the immediate aftermath back in January. The White House wants answers President Trump is not celebrating alongside Big Oil’s shareholders. On June 24, he announced a Department of Justice investigation targeting Exxon, Chevron,...