Who's Sucking Up To Trump, Checkbooks In Hand? Why, Oil & Gas Billionaires, Of Course!!

[hatrack]

Earlier this summer, oil billionaire Harold Hamm called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race. He made contributions to the presidential campaigns of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and questioned publicly whether Trump could beat President Biden in the 2024 election. Then late last month, Hamm showed up at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., brought a $200,000 check for a pro-Trump super PAC, and attended a private meeting with Trump and an intimate fundraiser with the former president, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe donations and private meetings.

The reversal came as Trump and his team aggressively court donations from the oil and gas industry, one of the main beneficiaries of his time in the White House. Over the course of four years, the Trump administration weakened or wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and policies, many of them designed to limit planet-warming emissions from fossil fuels. Biden, by contrast, has reversed many of Trump’s policies and enacted dozens of measures aimed at moving the nation away from oil, gas and coal.

Hamm, executive chairman of the oil giant Continental Resources, did not respond to a request for comment. A person with knowledge of Hamm’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly, said the Oklahoma businessman realized that Trump was going to be the nominee and efforts to stop him were going nowhere.

EDIT

A range of affluent Texas oil business people attended recent Trump fundraising events, according to his advisers, such as George Bishop, Cody Campbell, John Sellers, Marcia French, Mark Rollins, Elpidio Balderas and Al Gonsoulin. On Wednesday, hotel magnate Robert Bigelow, the largest individual donor to a super PAC supporting DeSantis, said he was considering switching his allegiance to Trump. Another prominent GOP donor, Bernie Marcus, said he was endorsing Trump on Thursday after other GOP candidates tried to woo him. Earlier this year, the former Home Depot CEO said publicly that he was undecided. “Who would you want as a commander? I’d want somebody that would be a hell of an ass-kicker if he needed to be,” Bigelow said in an interview with the Financial Times. “On the face of it, you lean toward Trump.”

EDIT

https://wapo.st/3Qrtx4M

[Farmer-Rick]

1. It's so much easier on the billionaires

To control one fascist orange blob then to control a democracy.

The best way to keep our democracy is to take away the power of the billionaires' stolen loot. That means huge taxes on their loot or ending capitalism.