Back in August, Trump told a group of chief executives at a dinner at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, that he had told Saudi officials - whom he called his "friends in the Gulf" - that the United States was protecting them and therefore should not have to pay such high prices for oil, according to someone in attendance. Trump singled out oil baron Harold Hamm for his opinion, and Hamm said the oil supply needed to grow for prices to drop, the attendee said.