Tag: fundraising
Trump's Corrupt Deal With Big Oil Comes To Fruition

Trump's Corrupt Deal With Big Oil Comes To Fruition

Last May, The Washington Post published an exclusive story on a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in which Donald Trump promised to reverse then-President Joe Biden's actions on climate change as he asked Big Oil executives to fundraise $1 billion for his presidential campaign, assuring that they would be getting a “deal” due to the “taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.” Reportedly, oil and gas executives did make “significant contributions to the Trump campaign.”

Over a four-day period, MSNBC was the only major TV network to cover the story, which All In host Chris Hayes described as “a political quid pro quo.”

Now, two new stories emerged this week that give more context to the promised “deal” the oil and gas industry is getting under Trump’s second term. National TV networks should inform their audience about how Big Oil is benefitting under Trump.

Bloomberg reported on June 17 that the Senate version of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” now includes a tax break for the oil and gas industry “estimated to be worth more than $1 billion.”

The provision would allow energy companies subject to a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax to deduct certain drilling costs when calculating their taxable income. Companies including ConocoPhillips, Ovintiv Inc. and Civitas Resources, Inc. lobbied in favor of it.

The change was included in the legislation released Monday by Republicans on the Senate tax writing committee, which would slash tax credits for wind, solar, electric vehicles and hydrogen.

Other supporters of the measure, which wasn’t included in the House version of the bill, include the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, founded by oil billionaire and Trump donor Harold Hamm.

The same legislation would repeal tax credits for the clean power industry, which would threaten more than 800,000 jobs and raise energy prices for consumers.

In fact, clean energy technologies constituted 93 percent of new power generation capacity added to the grid last year alone, and the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act which Trump wants repealed, “have spurred the highest levels of factory construction in American history, with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country.”

Meanwhile, CNN reported on June 16 that “the Environmental Protection Agency has told staff overseeing the country’s industrialized Midwest — a region plagued by a legacy of pollution — to stop enforcing violations against fossil fuel companies.”

Four sources with knowledge of the situation at the EPA’s Region 5 office, which oversees six Midwestern states, told CNN that enforcement officials were informed that “there is a pause on oil and gas enforcement” at staff meetings.

“That is how our regional management is interpreting signals from the president,” the EPA enforcement staffer said.
Officers stopped being able to issue notices of violation or send information requests to fossil fuel companies suspected of polluting, the sources told CNN. A violation notice is a prerequisite for taking a company to court for alleged violations of environmental laws.

These instructions are on top of other administration efforts to radically reduce safeguards that protect Americans from fossil fuel-related pollution and open up more land for oil and gas drilling.

Earlier this month, for example, the EPA announced plans to eliminate Biden-era regulations limiting the amount of carbon emissions and other pollution released into the atmosphere by fossil fuel-fired power plants. CBS reported the rule the EPA seeks to revoke “is projected to reduce 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere by 2047, as well as eliminate tens of thousands of tons of other harmful air pollutants that are dangerous to public health” — an amount of pollution “equivalent to driving more than 320 million gas-powered cars for a year, according to an EPA estimate.”

The new CNN report also notes:

An early snapshot of enforcement data from Trump’s start of his second term shows the overall number of EPA enforcement cases initiated or closed across sectors has dropped by 32% compared with the first three months of the Biden administration, according to publicly available EPA data analyzed for CNN by environmental watchdog Environmental Integrity Project. The same data shows nearly 60% fewer cases have been initiated or closed compared with the first three months of Trump’s first term.

Taken together, these reductions in taxes, regulations, and enforcement for the fossil fuel industry are essentially what Trump promised to deliver for Big Oil in exchange for backing his 2024 campaign.

At the time, The Atlantic’s David A. Graham described the proposition as “undeniably scandalous.” Now that these gifts to Big Oil are being delivered, TV networks should inform their audience about the dirty “deal” between Trump and Big Oil playing out at the expense of the booming clean energy industry, our health, and our climate.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Imitating Foreign Despots, Trump Aims To Shut Democrats' ActBlue Site

Imitating Foreign Despots, Trump Aims To Shut Democrats' ActBlue Site

President Donald Trump is set to sign a presidential memorandum Thursday targeting ActBlue, the fundraising platform that powers Democratic campaigns and causes. This is Trump’s latest attempt to neuter political opposition.

It's unclear what exactly the memorandum will do, but according to Politico, it claims that ActBlue accepts foreign contributions—which the platform vehemently denies.

Of course, Trump himself has been hit with allegations of accepting Russian bribes. In fact, a political consultant who worked for Great America PAC, which backed Trump’s 2016 campaign, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2023 for illegally accepting Russian contributions.

What’s more, Trump is currently taking in millions from cryptocurrency investors, who are buying his meme coin for a chance to meet with Trump. It’s a blatantly corrupt pay-to-play effort, in which foreigners could be personally funneling money to Trump.

“The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote on X.

Similarly, Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jake Auchincloss joined together to demand an investigation into Trump’s meme coin, though it’s unlikely that the Department of Justice run by the nakedly partisan Pam Bondi would actually prosecute.

“Anyone, including the leaders of hostile nations, can covertly buy these coins, raising the specter of uninhibited and untraceable foreign influence over the President of the United States, all while President Trump’s supporters are left to shoulder the risk of investing in $TRUMP and $MELANIA,” they wrote in a letter in January.

And while ActBlue is being targeted by Trump’s memorandum, the Republican fundraising platform WinRed will seemingly go unscathed, despite its many actual issues—including coming under fire after the 2020 election for tricking people into unknowingly making recurrent donations to Trump’s campaign.

But this despotic attack against what Trump deems a “political enemy” is nothing new.

For example, Trump has stripped Big Law firms of their security clearances and government contracts because they employed lawyers who have investigated him or have sued to block Trump’s illegal actions. As a result, firms have halted pro bono work that might anger Trump.

ActBlue raises massive amounts of money for Democrats and Democratic causes, taking in nearly $500 million in 2025 alone. And its lawyers have been gearing up for a fight against Trump.

“Every one of our clients is concerned about being arbitrarily targeted by the Trump administration. We are going to great lengths to help clients prepare for or defend themselves,” said Ezra Reese, political law chair at Elias Law Group, which represents many Democrats and Democratic organizations.

And ActBlue says that it will not be scared into submission by Trump's bullying.

"Nothing will deter or interrupt ActBlue’s mission and work to enable millions of Americans to participate in our democracy," ActBlue President and CEO Regina Wallace-Jones wrote in an email to Democrats.

"There is an ongoing and persistent effort to weaken the confidence of the American people in what’s possible,” she added. “This is the next version of ‘the big lie.’”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Steve Bannon

Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge

Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and ally of white nationalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.

In exchange for the guilty plea in New York state criminal court, Bannon agreed to a three-year conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal. This means he will not receive any prison time, assuming he does not re-offend.

But he didn’t get off completely scot-free: Bannon will not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York, or any fundraising or nonprofit organization in New York. He will also not be allowed to receive or hold assets for any charitable organizations, NBC News reports.

If he violates any terms of the deal, he could face between 1 ⅓ to 4 years behind bars, according to his plea deal.

“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement toUSA Today and other outlets, including NBC News.

Bannon was accused of defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraiser aimed at fulfilling a pet project of Trump’s during his first term in office. But the indictment alleged that Bannon and others had swindled donors who contributed more than $15 million for the 2019 alleged fundraising project.

While Bannon had said that all of the donations would go toward the construction of a southern border wall, authorities said Bannon redirected the funds elsewhere. In fact, Bannon had secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s president, Brian Kolfage, through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

According to ABC News, Kolfage was paid $100,000 upfront and received monthly payments of about $20,000.

Kolfage and another man involved with the project, Andrew Badolato, previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2022 and were sentenced to prison.

The “War Room” podcast host was first indicted in 2022 on six charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. The indictment from Bragg’s office alleged that Bannon orchestrated a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud those who donated to his “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. The trial was set to begin next month.

Bannon had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the most serious charge.

The Trump ally wasn’t exactly repentant for his actions. In fact, after the hearing, he said he planned to call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and to investigate Bragg, both of whom have successfully challenged Trump in court.

James, Bannon said, is an “existential threat to the Trump administration.”

This is not Bannon’s first time running afoul of the law. He spent four months in jail in 2024 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

So far, Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist for just seven months during his first term, hasn’t been brought into the second administration. He currently spends a lot of time raging about Elon Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Harris Campaign Brings In Over $81M During First 24 Hours After Biden Nod

Harris Campaign Brings In Over $81M During First 24 Hours After Biden Nod

President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris at 2:13 PM ET on Sunday afternoon. Almost immediately, donations to the Democratic fundraising site ActBlue exploded, reportedly peaking at over $12 million an hour on Sunday night.

On Monday afternoon, the Harris campaign reported that it had collected $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement. That number is the largest 24-hour haul in the 2024 race so far, greatly exceeding the $52.8 million that Donald Trump reportedly brought in following his conviction on 34 felony counts. Harris’ campaign added 43,000 new recurring donors, with over half signing up for weekly donations, the campaign said in a press release on Monday.

But the good news doesn’t stop there. Because the burst of money into Harris’ campaign may have also generated millions for Democrats up and down the ticket.

ObservableHQ tracks contributions to ActBlue by regularly checking the site’s overall ticker. (The operator of ObservableHQ does note that we shouldn’t assume the ticker is as reliable as ActBlue’s FEC reports, however.) It reported a daily total of over $66 million for Sunday. On Monday morning, that number swiftly passed $80 million, and as the clock counted down to the same time as Biden’s Sunday endorsement, the total for the 24-hour period hit: $97.99 million. So close. About 30 minutes later, it topped the $100 million line.

As of this writing, the estimated amount raised since the endorsement stands at $107.7 million, with contributions still coming in at a rate of about $3 million per hour. This is still only Monday afternoon, and this is already the biggest week that ActBlue has seen through this election cycle.

In fact, Sunday’s estimated $66,813,025 in contributions put it at the top of ActBlue’s all-time best days, barely beating out Sept. 19, 2020, when a wash of contributions followed the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. At 4:45 PM ET, Monday’s total stood at $40,924,752. That puts it in the top five days overall, with several hours of prime-time fundraising remaining.

The contributions being reported by ActBlue are not exclusively funds going to the Harris campaign. This is a compilation of all ActBlue candidate contributions over this period. Some part of these totals—hopefully millions—is sloshing over into Senate, House, and state government races.

In addition, Harris is certainly collecting money from other sources. ActBlue generally handles smaller contributions from individuals. It’s just one route for funds to reach Harris’ campaign. A single massive Zoom call on Sunday evening hosted by the organization Win With Black Women reportedly attracted so many participants that the COO of Zoom had to step in to raise the limits. That call alone raised approximately $1.5 million in grassroots contributions. When the final totals are in, the Harris team may have eclipsed their reported $81 million haul.

What’s clear is that Biden ending his campaign and endorsing Harris uncorked a flood of Democratic contributions. A lot of that money is going to Harris. Some of it is going elsewhere.

It’s all good.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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