Trump turns to oil donors to grease the final leg of the race

Donald Trump is feeling angry and sore at donors and limited by concerns for his safety in the final leg of the presidential race, reports The New York Times.

Small Trump donors have been fewer during this campaign than in 2016, forcing the former president to seek financial support in larger chunks, such as the $75 million Elon Musk has brought to the table.

After asking the oil and gas sector for $1 billion to put him back in the White House last April at his Mar-a-Lago club, he has made a last-ditch effort to get oil tycoons to bankroll his bid for office, hosting a string of fundraisers across Texas.

Slamming his rival vice president Kamala Harris and her “radical” energy program, Trump has once again been peddling his fossil-fuel agenda to prospective donors.

The Trump campaign’s line on Harris’ program is that it is the most “radical energy agenda in history” and controlled by “environmental extremists,” reports Business Standard.

According to guests at a fundraiser in oil-rich Midland, Trump claimed that the US “could not be in a worse position as far as energy security goes,” reports the Financial Times.

But Trump’s claim that Biden is waging a “war on American energy” had a hollow ring to it as the sector has been booming under the Biden administration, despite the President’s ambitions to curb fossil-fuel production and promote EVs.

“Donald Trump is selling out working families to Big Oil for campaign checks. It’s that simple,” the Democrat campaign told The Washington Post before Harris took the reins.

The Financial Times notes that the most expensive tickets to the Midland gig came in at $924,600 for a couple, just $75,400 short of $1 million while a photo with the former president was on offer for $50,000.

“I’ll vote for him, but I’m not giving him a red cent,” one absent Midland executive told the FT. “He ‘gets’ the oil industry because they give him lots of campaign contributions,” he added, indicating that he did not trust Trump’s grasp of the sector.

Another oil boss sounded less than impressed by Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” slogan, pointing out that it would simply bring down the price of oil and ultimately do the sector no favors. “Shut up about ‘drill, baby, drill’,” he said in the FT.

While some billionaires have been eager to fill Trump’s campaign coffers, there have been a significant number reluctant to shell out in the manner the Republican presidential candidate was hoping, according to Business Standard.

The billionaires who have been generous to Trump include Kelcy Warren, from Energy Transfer LP; shale magnate Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources Inc.; and Jeff Hildebrand, CEO of Hilcorp Energy Co.

Of these three, Harold Hamm has been nothing short of frantic in his drive to raise millions from his industry buddies, phoning them up to urge them to attend Trump’s fundraisers and part with their cash.

“We’ve got to do this because it’s the most important election in our lifetime,” Hamm is quoted saying in The Washington Post.

Despite Hamm’s efforts and Trump’s pleas, Business Standard reports that the sums raised in the oil and gas industry have amounted to just $22.4 million to date – well short of the audacious request for $1 billion.

OpenSecrets confirms that most donations have come not from across the board but from a reduced number of donors writing out eye-watering checks in the belief Trump will roll back climate regulations and bolster fossil fuel interests.

The shortfall has left Trump somewhat strapped for cash. In August, he spent $32 million more on his campaign than he raised and in September his spending on media was less than half what the Harris campaign spent, Business Standard reports.

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