‘Undisguised corruption’: critics slam Trump for ‘selling the White House’ to Big Oil

Donald Trump is promising CEOs of oil and gas conglomerates he will dismantle the climate protections President Joe Biden has installed, and he will green light their policy wishlists including gutting support for electric vehicles if they donate $1 billion for his presidential campaign, according to reporting from Politico and The Washington Post.

"You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House," reports The Post, describing Trump's conversation "with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month."

"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," The Post added. "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."

Meanwhile, Politico is reporting the "U.S. oil industry is drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term, according to energy executives with direct knowledge of the work."

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"The effort stems from the industry’s skepticism that the Trump campaign will be able to focus on energy issues as Election Day draws closer — and worries that the former president is too distracted to prepare a quick reversal of the Biden administration’s green policies. Oil executives also worry that a second Trump administration won’t attract staff skillful enough to roll back President Joe Biden’s regulations or craft new ones favoring the industry, these people added."

But Trump is promising Big Oil that "on Day 1" of his second term, if he wins the White House in November, they will get at least some of their wishes fulfilled.

“You’ve been waiting on a permit for five years; you’ll get it on Day 1,” Trump told the energy company executives, according to The Post. "At the dinner, Trump also promised that he would scrap Biden’s 'mandate' on electric vehicles — mischaracterizing ambitious rules that the Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized, according to people who attended. The rules require automakers to reduce emissions from car tailpipes, but they don’t mandate a particular technology such as EVs. Trump called them 'ridiculous' in the meeting with donors."

The oil industry "got a great return on their investment during Trump’s first term, and Trump is making it crystal clear that they’re in for an even bigger payout if he’s reelected,” Alex Witt, a senior adviser for oil and gas with Climate Power, told The Post.

"With Trump, Witt said, 'everything has a price.'"

Politico reveals how special interests, including but not limited to Big Oil, see a second Trump administration as an opportunity to literally write their own policies, in part because they don't believe an incoming Trump administration will attract experts.

“We’re going to have to write exactly what we want, actually spoon feeding the administration. There’s 27-page drafts moving around Washington,” one energy company lawyer said. “Supportive industries are going to have to prop up a second Trump administration with expertise.”

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In an interview with Politico, Matthew Davis, vice president of federal policy at the League of Conservation Voters and a former EPA scientist, "said it’s a fairly widespread norm for outside groups to write policy proposals and white papers to inform an incoming administration’s policies. But an industry writing exact language for an incoming president to sign is 'beyond the pale.'"

“It is not shocking, but perhaps a little bold and gross that the oil industry is writing text for executive orders,” Davis said.

Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer via social media commented, "Donald Trump is selling out Americans and our planets future to big oil. They get huge tax breaks while screwing over consumers and making record profits."

Critics with backgrounds in government, law, the environment, and communications appeared stunned at the reporting from Politico and The Washington Post.

"Just straight up, undisguised corruption," Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), remarked, pointing to both articles.

"Trump is putting the power of the presidency up for sale to his rich buddies," attorney Charles DeLoach remarked.

"The Republican Party is more than just funded by the fossil fuel industry to do its bidding. Increasingly it looks like the fossil fuel industry in the US IS the Republican Party - the most shocking global example of total political capture by the industry," commented Ed Matthew, Campaigns Director at the independent climate think tank E3G.

"Donald Trump told top oil executives to raise $1 billion for his reelection and said he would immediately reverse environmental rules issued by President Biden. That's a perfect example of our corrupt system and why campaign finance reform is needed now," commented Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) President Noah Bookbinder.

Political commentator and former Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor, pointing to The Post's report, called it "one of the most overtly corrupt fundraising pitches I have ever heard and underscores the stakes in this election."

"You won't read a more important story today," Philadelphia Inquirer national opinion columnist Will Bunch remarked on The Post's report. "Trump is willing to literally destroy the planet for $1 billion."

Strategist and communications director Josh Schwerin, who has worked for Democrats and Democratic groups, remarked: "Quid pro quo. Pay to play. Bribery. You decide the label, the result is the same. Trump is selling the White House to the highest bidders, in this case it’s oil CEOs."

Climate Power, which calls itself a "strategic communications organization focused on winning the politics of climate," responded to The Post's report: "While Joe Biden has take more than 300 climate, conservation, public health, and clean energy actions, Donald Trump is selling our climate future for $1 billion. It's not just climate champion vs. climate arsonist—it's decency vs. evil."

End Climate Silence's founding director Dr. Genevieve Guenther, an expert in climate communication and fossil-fuel disinformation, remarked, "it's nauseating on so many different levels, but I have to stay: remember the climate stakes of this election. Biden means we have a chance. Trump means full-bore fossil-fuel development and an incinerated adulthood for the kids in our homes today."

Richard Stengel, the MSNBC political analyst, former U.S. Undersecretary of State, former TIME Magazine managing editor, and former chief executive of the National Constitution Center seemed to sum up The Post's report on Trump: "He is the swamp."

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