A screenshot of Fox News host Laura Ingraham talking about the possibility of seizing Iran's oil with an image of Trump and the words "To the victor go the spoils"

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Trump's media allies embrace oil wars

Amid encouragement from right-wing media, Trump is reportedly considering seizing Iran’s oil

Written by Zachary Pleat

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Soon after President Donald Trump launched his war against Iran, Fox News and Newsmax personalities began talking about the possibility of Trump taking control of Iran’s oil industry, and multiple news reports now say the administration is not ruling out such a move. 

This development follows months of encouragement from right-wing media figures to do a similar takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry, which Trump embraced after taking military action to depose President Nicolás Maduro.

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  • Trump won’t rule out seizing Iran’s oil, acknowledges it’s a topic of discussion

    • NBC News: “President Donald Trump on Monday left open the prospect of acquiring Iranian oil as the U.S. proceeds with” its war against Iran. NBC added: “Trump told NBC News that he did not want to discuss whether he would like the U.S. to seize Iranian oil but added: ‘Certainly people have talked about it.’” [NBC News, 3/9/26]
    • Axios: “Administration officials tell Axios there has also been discussion of seizing Kharg Island, a strategic terminal responsible for roughly 90% of Iran's crude oil exports.” CNBC explained that Iran’s Kharg Island is “a small but strategically vital strip of land nestled in the waters of the northern Persian Gulf” where “it is estimated that around 90% of the country’s crude exports pass through it before tankers then travel through the Strait of Hormuz.” [Axios, 3/7/26; CNBC, 3/9/26]

  • Right-wing media muse about Trump taking over Iran’s oil

    • Fox host Jesse Watters suggested a benefit to Trump’s war on Iran would be that we will “have full control over the oil-rich Middle East.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/2/26]
    • Watters: “What we’ve done here is, now with Venezuela and Iran, we’ve basically tipped over two petro dictatorships. … And we now control almost the entire world oil market.” Watters concluded: “So if this is a successful mission, this is what you call checkmate.” [Fox News, The Five, 3/3/26]
    • America First Policy Institute’s Keith Kellogg on Fox: Iran’s Kharg Island “would be a good place if you’re going to use U.S. troops, or any type of troops, occupy Kharg Island, then you control 80% of the oil that comes out of Iran.” Kellogg added: “So, that would be a pretty good move.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/3/26]
    • Fox guest Harley Lippman: “China desperately depends on” Iran’s “oil and gas. … By the United States having control of that from Venezuela and Iran, we have a powerful leverage play with China.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/3/26]
    • Fox Business guest Ryan Payne: “We took over the infrastructure in Venezuela. Now, if we take over the infrastructure in Iran, I would argue you’re going to see lower prices because that’s more output to the market.” Payne continued: “You’re going to have less volatility. So what might happen here is actually oil prices become more normalized, not as volatile, and actually a little bit lower over the longer term, which will be great for input costs for the globe.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria, 3/4/26]
    • Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald: “President Trump is now moving to strengthen world security, liberating 121 million people from dictatorships in Iran and Venezuela, and also liberating $30 trillion worth of oil fields.” [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 3/4/26]
    • Newsmax host Carl Higbie: “We’re taking the oil from Venezuela now. We’re likely going to get a bunch from Iran.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie Frontline, 3/4/26]
    • Fox host Lawrence Jones: Trump “started out by saying, why do we always go to war? We don’t take the oil. … Why do we leave the engine of the people that just attacked us?” Jones concluded: “It all started, though, before he declared his candidacy for president and said we got to control the oil. Because the oil controls the world economy.” Earlier in the segment, National Review writer Caroline Downey said: “This is part of Trump’s grand strategy to counter the new Axis of Evil. … We’re doing this because Iran is a weapon of the Chinese communist regime. We got to take China’s pawns off the chessboard. One of them is disrupting raw materials from Iran and from Venezuela to China.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 3/5/26]
    • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt gushed over Trump’s “bold agenda,” likening Iran’s future to Venezuela’s and saying the latter “is now effectively a colony of the United States.” Schmitt outlined what he believed were Trump’s broad geopolitical plans “to change the landscape of the world to the benefit of our country,” specifically adding that Trump “wants to force American influence onto OPEC by controlling Iran, by controlling Venezuela.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 3/5/26]
    • Fox guest Jim Hanson suggested seizing “Kharg Island, the oil terminal that Iran uses to get 60%, or 40-plus %, of their revenue from.” He continued: “Taking that and keeping that in hold until the regime falls might be a way to shut them down.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 3/9/26]
    • Fox host Laura Ingraham: “If there is a way to help manage and rebuild, maybe with a joint venture in place, the Iranian oil fields … what’s the argument against doing this? Why wouldn’t it make sense?” Ingraham also said “of course Trump was right” “when he railed against Bush, President Bush, for failing himself to take control of Iraqi oil fields after that invasion.” During Ingraham’s monologue, a graphic showed an image of Trump with the words: “To the victor go the spoils.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/9/26]
    • Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade: “Now they’re talking about possibly taking Kharg Island. This oil island, where 90% of Iranian oil is pumped from, the president ironically talked about taking this island as far back as 1988 in an interview when he was selling his book The Art of the Deal.” Kilmeade added: “There seems to be a lot of upside in doing it.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/10/26]
    • Kilmeade asked a guest: “Would you take Kharg Island? Should that be one of our objectives, where 90% of the oil transfers to in Iran?” The guest, former Air Force Assistant Deputy Undersecretary John Teichert, replied: “I think that’s a great idea, and I hope and expect that there are plans to potentially do so.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/10/26]

  • Trump has a history of advocating for seizing other nations’ oil supplies

    • Brookings Institution in 2016: “Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump has said repeatedly the United States should take Iraq’s oil as the spoils of war. With him, it’s an old refrain that goes back at least five years.” [Brookings Institute, 9/16/16]
    • Vanity Fair in 2018: “Trump twice floated plundering Iraq’s oil to Iraq’s prime minister.” [Vanity Fair, 11/26/18]
    • The Guardian: In an interview in 1988 to promote his book The Art of the Deal, Trump said: “I’d be harsh on Iran. … One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it.” [The Guardian, 1/12/27]

  • Right-wing media previously encouraged and then celebrated Trump’s apparent seizure of Venezuela’s oil industry

    • Prior to Trump’s January 3 ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, many right-wing media figures urged regime change there to seize Venezuela’s oil supplies. [Media Matters, 1/6/26]
    • Fox celebrated Trump's apparent seizure of Venezuela's oil as an economic boon. Yet Fox also previously criticized the Biden administration for merely permitting one American company to resume production of oil in that country in 2022 as part of negotiations with Venezuelan opposition groups. [Media Matters, 1/8/26]
    • Multiple Fox personalities misleadingly claimed that Trump’s seizure of Venezuela’s oil industry would lower gas prices in the U.S. The reality is that rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry would cost a reported $100 billion over a decade, and, as of January 2026, there was an oversupply of oil with decreased demand that had caused gas prices to decline. [Media Matters, 1/16/26]