The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19m to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, a new analysis shows, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil.
The president raised a stunning $239m for his inauguration – more than the previous three inaugural committees took in combined and more than double the previous record – according to data published by the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). The oil and gas sector made a significant contribution to that overall number, found the international environmental and human rights organization Global Witness.
The group pulled itemized inaugural fund contribution data released by the FEC in April, and researched each contributor with the help of an in-house artificial intelligence tool. They located 47 contributions to the fund made by companies and individuals linked to the fossil fuel sector, to which Trump has voiced his fealty.
On the campaign trail and in his inauguration speech, the president pledged to “drill, baby, drill”.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” Trump said in his inaugural address, just hours before he signed a spate of executive orders to “unleash American energy” and roll back environmental protections. His administration has since worked to boost the oil industry, including by taking aim at city- and state-led fossil fuel accountability efforts, opening up swaths of land to extraction and cracking down on renewable energy expansion.
“It’s no surprise the oil and gas industry handed millions to Donald Trump for his inauguration, and they seem to have reaped a huge return on their investment, said Nicu Calcea, a senior data investigator at Global Witness.
Among the oil-linked donors identified, the energy giant Chevron made the largest contribution to Trump’s inaugural fund at $2m, tying it for fourth-largest donor overall alongside other givers such as crypto platform Coinbase and financial services company Robinhood.
Reached for comment, a Chevron spokesperson said: “Chevron has a long tradition of celebrating democracy by supporting the inaugural committees of both parties. We are proud to have done so again.”
ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum each made $1m donations. None of the three companies responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.
Altogether, Global witness identified $19,151,933 in donations from fossil fuel-linked donors. That number is probably an underestimate, they say, because it does not include contributions from unverified energy-linked donors, or from diversified investors and businesses that do not work primarily in oil and gas.
Trump’s profile of inaugural fund donors starkly contrasts with Joe Biden’s; the former president banned contributions to the fund from the oil and gas sector.
“So Trump’s day one love-in with the oil and gas industry really tell us whose side he’s on,” said Alice Harrison, head of fossil fuel campaigning at Global witnes.
Set up as charitable organizations, presidential inaugural funds are used to cover the costs of parades, galas and receptions as a new president enters the White House. Unlike presidential election campaigns, there are no set limits on how much a corporation or US citizen can give to an inaugural committee.
Fossil fuel interests poured an additional $96m into Trump’s re-election campaign and affiliated political action committees, a January report found. Though that was less than the $1bn he requested from the sector in an infamous meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club last spring, it still constituted record levels of spending.
