Trump Meets With Oil and Gas Executives about Venezuela While Doing Nothing to Lower Costs for Americans
tags
WASHINGTON, DC – Donald Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House to discuss plans for Venezuela. While Trump cozies up to oil and gas billionaires, he is doing nothing to lower skyrocketing costs that are burdening Americans. Household electricity bills are up 13% since Trump took office. Now, Trump is spending taxpayer dollars in pursuit of expensive foreign oil that will benefit nobody but his billionaire donors, while taking a sledgehammer to the homegrown clean energy industry, which would actually lower energy costs for Americans and can be brought online faster than new oil production.
SHOT: In April 2024, Trump promised the oil industry a laundry list of their priorities on “day one” after asking them for $1 billion in donations to his campaign.
CHASER: Big Oil spent $450 million to influence Trump and congressional Republicans.
CHASER: ABC: “Trump spoke to oil companies before Venezuela attack but didn’t brief lawmakers, he says”
CHASER: Bloomberg: “Trump’s Venezuela Meeting Is Shaping Up to Be a Who’s Who of US Oil”
DEJA VU: This is not the first time that Trump shaped foreign policy to benefit his Big Oil donors.
- In 2020, Trump cut a deal with Vladimir Putin, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and OPEC+ to deliberately increase oil prices for Americans so that he could bail out his most important Big Oil megadonor, Harold Hamm, after Hamm lost $3 billion in just a few days.