Former President Donald Trump made a bold offer to oil executives as November approaches.
The Washington Post reported that Trump met with top oil executives last month at Mar-a-Lago. During the meeting he heard complaints from his guests — a list of about 24, including names like Mike Sabel, the CEO and founder of Venture Global, and Jack Fusco, the CEO of Cheniere Energy — about President Joe Biden’s environmental regulations, despite the Biden administration paying $400 million to lobby their causes over the last year.
What was Trump’s reply? Raise a $1 billion dollars to send him back to the White House this November, according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the meeting.
In doing so, Trump promised to reverse many of Biden’s environmental policies and block new ones from being enacted. Additionally, Trump reportedly promised an end to Biden’s freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas exports, saying, “You’ll get it on the first day.” Trump called this offer a “deal,” per the Post, “because of the taxation and regulation [the executives] would avoid thanks to him.”
As usual, Trump was bold, blunt, and to the point. He framed himself as the oil candidate as we near the end of a term that’s been the complete opposite.
Biden’s Department of the Interior recently blocked drilling across 13 million acres in the Alaskan Arctic, according to the Post. In March, he introduced a mandate on new cars being electric. CNN reported that under this mandate, 35 – 56 percent of new car sales in 2032 will be electric.
Once again, Trump promised he would reverse this mandate on his first day in office.
Trump also stated at the same meeting in April that he would be auctioning off leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, while also reasserting his opposition to Biden’s EV mandate, calling it “ridiculous.”
With how vexing the situation under Biden has been after he overturned 27 of Trump’s policies targeting fossil fuels and passed 24 new ones, you could not blame the former president for being bold in his offer.
Does America need an oil friendly president?
Oil companies are hearing from Trump, “Biden is against you. I’m with you. It’s that simple. Help me win.”
This position is not just reserved for private audiences.
At Fundraiser on Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum stated, “What would be the Number 1 thing that President Trump could do on Day 1? It’s stop the hostile attack against all American energy, and I mean all.”
Burgum, who has been tapped as a candidate for secretary of energy should Trump prevail in November, has played an important role in the Trump campaign’s energy policy. In chastising Biden’s approach to energy, Burgum said, “Whether it’s baseload electricity, whether it’s oil, whether it’s gas, whether it’s ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels.”
Burgum is right. The numbers don’t lie.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, retail gas prices per gallon for the month of December 2020 — Trump’s last full month in office — stood at $2.195. Gas prices under Biden have so far peaked at $4.929 dollars per gallon for June 2022. For April 2024, that number sits at $3.611.
In response to Trump, Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa made the following statement: “Donald Trump is selling out working families to Big Oil for campaign checks. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter to Trump that oil and gas companies charge working families and middle-class Americans whatever they want while raking in record profits — if Donald can cash a check, he’ll do what they say.”
Granted, its politically advantageous to frame Trump’s relationship with donors like this. The Biden campaign needs Trump to be a corrupt politician from the Gilded Age that has John D. Rockefeller in his back pocket, so they can be the progressives here to save the day.
Yet, it’s Trump’s pro-oil stance that will save the day. Biden has made gas outrageously expensive. People are fed up with his ridiculous green energy nonsense.
Americans don’t want to blow all their money at the pump just so they can have a feel-good moment for the environment — only to go broke.
