Trump and big oil
Shortly after first taking office in 2017, then President Trump officially repudiated the Paris Agreement. “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers — who I love — and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production,” he declared in a Rose Garden speech on June 1, 2017.
Under President Joe Biden, the United States rejoined the Paris Agreement in 2021.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump doubled down on his disdain for renewable energy. “Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry,” reads a Washington Post article published on May, 9, 2024. Trump had hosted oil industry executives at his Mar-aLago Club in April of 2024, urging them to donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign. “Giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal,’ Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him,” reporters Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow wrote.