What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

[Passages]

By Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow
May 9, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year.

Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people.

SNIP
Burgum’s approach to climate policy makes him an unusual messenger for Trump, who has falsely called global warming a hoax invented by China. But many oil executives view Burgum — a possible contender to lead the Energy Department in a second Trump term — as sympathetic to their concerns, and he has cultivated deep support among oil donors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/

[Wonder Why]

1. Anything and everything - including access to Stormy.

[Shapeshifter]

2. Irony and greed

Big oil bitching about environmental regulations cutting into their profits and Trump attempting to grift them is comedy gold. It's hard to choose in this case who is more corrupt, Trump or Big Oil. We know Trump certainly is but in 2022 the worlds five largest oil companies reported a record $196 billion in profits while (wait for it) raising prices at the pump.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Welcome to DU

[Johonny]

3. Exxon with Trump as president was at 40$

ExxonMobil with Biden as president is at 116$.

If oil executives really think Trump is better for them, oil companies need new executives.

[kimbutgar]

4. While the middle of our country is being destroyed by global warming as a result of oil companies having few

Limits. All these tornados/hurricanes and destruction of communities was predicted by Al Gore in the inconvenient truth book and documentary. Everything he predicted is coming true. We have to limit our fossil fuels usage to save our planet. When these oil companies executives start to have their mansions destroyed by tornados and hurricanes will they change their minds?

[Passages]

5. Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth was excellent. That was 2006.

It should have been enough to change legislation but we all know why that hasn't happened.

Billionaires seem to believe they will outrun climate change adversity. I believe they underestimate what life will be like for their children even with money to burn.

[Initech]

6. Oil CEOs don't need or deserve a damn thing.

They've been fucking us over and bleeding us dry for too long. It's way past time we stop giving them what they want. They can all go fuck right off.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. TFG is not being subtle

Link to tweet

[Hekate]

9. He's suggesting an outright bribe

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. Biden-Harris campaign statement on new report that TFG is asking oil executives to contribute $1 billion to his campaign

Link to tweet

[Passages]

11. Perfect.

That would look great on billboards across America, I think.

Thanks for posting it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Trump's pitch to Big Oil execs sparks Senate Democrats' attention

Will Senate Democrats hold hearings into Donald Trump's controversial pitch to oil industry executives? It's “highly likely,” one key member said.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-pitch-big-oil-execs-sparks-senate-democrats-attention-rcna151943

The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie responded soon after, “I’m obviously angered by the blatant disregard for the planet and its inhabitants. But I’m also struck by the in-your-face brazenness of Trump’s reported quid pro quo. This is more than the hint of corruption; it is the overpowering scent of the rotting corpse of corruption. It is influence trading of the sort that would embarrass a Boss Tweed or a Roscoe Conkling, whose 'honest graft' came with at least the pretense of pursuing the public good.”.....

Have the revelations opened the door to possible scrutiny on Capitol Hill? In the Republican-led House, no. In the Democratic-led Senate, maybe. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent reported:

For starters, the revelations seem to cry out for more scrutiny from Congress. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has been presiding over hearings into the oil industry as chair of the Budget Committee, says it’s “highly likely” that the committee will examine the new revelations.

“This is practically an invitation to ask more questions,” the Rhode Island Democrat told Greg, describing this as a “natural extension of the investigation already underway.”

The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie responded soon after, “I’m obviously angered by the blatant disregard for the planet and its inhabitants. But I’m also struck by the in-your-face brazenness of Trump’s reported quid pro quo. This is more than the hint of corruption; it is the overpowering scent of the rotting corpse of corruption. It is influence trading of the sort that would embarrass a Boss Tweed or a Roscoe Conkling, whose 'honest graft' came with at least the pretense of pursuing the public good.”

Have the revelations opened the door to possible scrutiny on Capitol Hill? In the Republican-led House, no. In the Democratic-led Senate, maybe. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent reported:

For starters, the revelations seem to cry out for more scrutiny from Congress. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has been presiding over hearings into the oil industry as chair of the Budget Committee, says it’s “highly likely” that the committee will examine the new revelations.

“This is practically an invitation to ask more questions,” the Rhode Island Democrat told Greg, describing this as a “natural extension of the investigation already underway.”

Whitehouse added, “The phrase that instantly came to mind as I was reading the story was ‘quid pro quo.’” Referencing both the Post’s report and the aforementioned Politico article, the senator concluded, “Put those things together and it starts to look mighty damn corrupt.”

All things considered, I think it’s fair to say that Senate Democrats have exercised extraordinary restraint — by some measures, too much — in not holding committee hearings in response to every episodic development surrounding the former president. While the likes of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan have reached for their gavel in response to meaningless Fox News segments, Democrats in the upper chamber have been far more measured about chasing assorted Trump scandals.

[Passages]

13. Don't hold back, Democrats, the time is now.

Thanks for adding that information.

[maxrandb]

14. But the CEO of Google said; "Politics has no place in the workspace"