Trump might have gotten himself into even more trouble

Donald Trump might be in more trouble than he knows if the allegations about a deal he allegedly made with top oil executives during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in April prove to be true. Here’s what the former president did. 

On May 9th, The Washington Post reported the former president sat down with several of the country’s top oil executives in April, and during the dinner, one complained about Joe Biden’s new environmental regulations. 

Trump responded to the comment by allegedly telling them they were wealthy enough to raise $1 billion for his reelection campaign before then vowing he would reverse dozens of Biden’s environmental rules and policies. 

“Giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal,’ Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people,” The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow reported. 

“You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump allegedly told the oil executives according to one of the dinner attendees. The former president also said that he would begin auctioning off more leases to drill oil in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Dawsey and Joselow also noted the former president said that he would also stop new environmental rules and policies from being enacted. The U.S. news outlets' information came from a source who had knowledge of the meeting. 

“You’ve been waiting on a permit for five years; you’ll get it on Day 1,” Trump explained to the executives according to the attendee. Promises were also made to scrap Biden’s electric vehicle mandate. 

Whether or not this conversation took place is still unknown but the allegation was more than enough to spur the ire of Democrats in the House of Representatives, who on May 13th launched a probe into Trump’s dinner with the oil executives. 

A separate report from The Washington Post noted Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to nine oil executives asking for information on their companies’ participation in the meeting with the former president. 

It was reported that Democrats in the House lacked certain investigative powers due to the fact that the Republicans controlled the legislative body but the Washington Post added the probe could be impeded if the executives refused to provide the information. 

Rhode Island Democratic Senator and chair of the Senate Budget Committee Sheldon Whitehouse said the former president’s comments were “practically an invitation to ask questions about Big Oil’s political corruption and manipulation.”

Senator Whitehall had shown interest in opening his own investigations into the former president’s comments, which did end up happening on May 23rd when Sheldon and the Senate Budget Committee co-chair Ron Wyden opened their own probe into the event. 

The Hill reported the Senate Budget Committee asked eight oil companies and one industry lobbying group to provide any materials that had been given to attendees and asked for details on any policy or decision discussed at the dinner. 

The reason why Trump’s comments matter and could get him into trouble is because it appears as if he might have offered the oil executives a quid pro quo deal, which in turn could be a violation of campaign finance law. But this point is unclear. 

The Washington Post’s initial report on the dinner noted experts believed that Trump’s comment likely didn’t break campaign finance law since the information we have is not enough to indicate a quid pro quo deal.

“This alone is probably not enough to indicate the existence of a quid pro quo,” the director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s Law School Dan Weiner explained. 

Barack Obama’s former ethics advisor Norm Eisen also agreed, saying: “I’m not saying it’s a violation of the law… But it raises serious questions, and it’s a reminder of why we have those laws on the books.” What the investigations will uncover has yet to be seen. 

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