ICYMI – Washington Post: “This oil tycoon brings in millions for Trump, and may set his agenda”
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Washington, D.C. – This morning, The Washington Post reported on Donald Trump’s deep ties to Continental Resources chairman Harold Hamm, who has spent years cultivating Trump, shaping his views on energy, and who has spent the last several months convincing the rest of Big Oil to open their wallets and pony up for Trump’s $1 billion demand for campaign funds.
By total coincidence, Harold Hamm’s wishlist for a second Trump term looks exactly like the wishlist Trump promised to Big Oil at the same fundraiser where he asked them for $1 billion: “Hamm has a wish list of policy changes in a second Trump term that would pad his profits and those of other oil executives. At the top of the list: opening up more federal lands to drilling, easing the Endangered Species Act and curbing numerous regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to people familiar with his demands.”
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“Yet he has emerged as a central figure in cajoling the oil industry to finance Trump’s reelection bid, and in communicating to the ex-president what the oil industry wants to improve its fortunes in a second Trump term. His message appears to be resonating with some of the country’s wealthiest oil magnates, who are banking on Trump’s promises to reverse dozens of Biden’s environmental rules and policies. The money has been flowing in. The oil and gas industry has contributed more than $20.3 million to the Trump campaign, pro-Trump super PACs and the Republican National Committee in the 2024 cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets.”
Hamm is so influential that after he lost $3 billion in just a few days, he persuaded Trump to personally negotiate a deal to deliberately raise oil prices with Vladimir Putin, Mohammad bin Salman and OPEC:
“Throughout Trump’s first term in office, Hamm was a reliable supporter of the administration and regularly spoke to the president. In early 2020, he lobbied Trump to help persuade Saudi Arabia and Russia to end a price war that had driven down the price of oil below $0 a barrel, causing Hamm to lose $3 billion in just a few days, people familiar with his meetings said.
“The effort appeared to pay off. In April 2020, under pressure from Trump, members of OPEC, Russia and other oil-producing nations agreed to the largest production cuts ever negotiated — nearly 10 million barrels a day — as oil demand collapsed during the pandemic.”