Ranking Member Raskin Probes Donald Trump’s Offer to Change U.S. Energy Policy in Exchange for $1 Billion in Campaign Cash from Big Oil

Washington, D.C. (May 14, 2024)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, is demanding answers from nine Big Oil CEOs following reports of quid pro quo propositions made by former President Donald Trump to dismantle fossil fuel regulations in exchange for $1 billion in contributions to his presidential campaign.

“I write to request any information you may have about quid pro quo financial agreements related to U.S. energy policy that were reportedly proposed at a recent campaign fundraising dinner with ex-President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club that you appear to have attended.  Media reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance, and legal issues that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin in the letters.

On May 9, 2024, the Washington Post reported that former President Donald Trump held a 20-person “Energy Round Table” with top oil and gas executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club on April 11, 2024.  According to the reporting, the former President sought $1 billion in campaign contributions from the industry executives in exchange for an explicit promise that, if elected, his Administration would roll-back environmental regulations.  Former President Trump reportedly pledged to take specific official actions to end the freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas exports, start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and rescind rules that reduce emissions from cars. 

According to the Washington Post, former President Trump told industry executives, “You all are wealthy enough” and that “you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House.”  He also claimed that “[g]iving $1 billion would be a ‘deal’” because of the taxation and regulation he would help them avoid.

These reports of a solicitation of payments in exchange for an explicit promise of specific future official actions are both highly credible and consistent with past behavior.

Indeed, in January 2024, Oversight Committee Democrats released a staff report uncovering how former President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million from foreign states and their leaders in blatant violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, and rendered a sequence of foreign policy favors to his patrons. 

This new reporting raises significant concerns that the former president is prospectively trying to sell out U.S. policy to fossil fuel companies and that, if re-elected, he will scrap environmental regulations for the right price and continue to work with Big Oil to undermine effective climate policy.

“Mr. Trump’s unvarnished quid pro quo offer is especially troubling evidence in light of recent accounts that 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.’  These preparatory actions suggest that certain oil and gas companies, which have a track record of using deceitful tactics to undermine effective climate policy may have already accepted or facilitated Mr. Trump’s explicit corrupt bargain,” Ranking Member Raskin added.

Click here to read the letter to Chevron.

Click here to read the letter to ExxonMobil.

Click here to read the letter to Continental Resources.

Click here to read the letter to Chesapeake Energy.

Click here to read the letter to Occidental Petroleum.

Click here to read the letter to Venture Global LNG.

Click here to read the letter to Cheniere Energy.

Click here to read the letter to EQT Corporation.

Click here to read the letter to American Petroleum Institute.