Tag: mar-a-lago
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capacity added to the grid last year alone, and the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act which Trump wants repealed, “have spurred the highest levels of factory construction in American history, with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country.”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.

Trump Is Vandalizing The White House In Tacky Mar-A-Lago 'Style'

Trump Is Vandalizing The White House In Tacky Mar-A-Lago 'Style'

President Donald Trump is gilding the White House, using his so-called "gold guy" to add gold touches to the Oval Office on the taxpayer dime to make the historic building look like his tacky Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, The Wall Street Journalreported.

Trump has gilded the furniture, affixed gold ornaments to the Oval Office fireplace, added gold sculptures and picture frames, and reportedly installed a gold Trump crest over the doorway into the White House. He even ordered his and Vice President JD Vance’s portraits to be reprinted with a gold border because he wanted the pictures to “catch the light,” the Journal reported.

“It’s the Golden Office for the Golden Age,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal.

The Journal reported that Trump also wants to add a ballroom to the White House complex where he can hold events, like he does at his Florida club, where guests pay stupid amounts of money for the chance to heap praise on the egomaniacal leader.

Trump loves his gilded Mar-a-Lago ballroom, telling guests at an event in February, “The ballroom is in top shape. We just spent a lot of money on gold. I’ve got more gold in the ballroom than anybody’s ever had in a ballroom before.”

Trump apparently wants to recreate that at the White House.

The ballroom addition is a project Trump has wanted to do since 2016, when he reportedly spoke to the Obama White House and offered to build the $100 million project—even though Trump is notorious for not paying his bills and stiffing workers. During his campaigns he even stiffed localities, refusing to pay hundreds of thousands in fees for the public safety provided for his ego-stroking rallies.

The Obama administration laughed off Trump’s offer.

“I'm not sure that it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign … on any part of the White House,” then-White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at the time.

But in Trump’s second term in office, where he’s acting like the dictator he’s always dreamed of being, he is now serious about remaking the White House—a worrying sign from someone who has mused about staying for a third term, despite the Constitution banning such a thing.

Trump’s tacky ballroom would be in addition to his plan to pave over the Rose Garden, the beautiful green space outside the White House where presidents hold events and press conferences. Trump’s reason for that? He said women are uncomfortable when their high heels sink into the grass. The horror!

Trump is gilding the White House and turning it into a gaudy mess comes at the same time that his administration is slashing federal spending for critical social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, preschool education for low-income Americans, and more. He is also cutting medical research, disease mitigation, and foreign aid, which is already having disastrous consequences and will undoubtedly lead to even more.

Worse, as Trump demands austerity from the country, he’s reportedly planning to spend tens of millions on a grotesque military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his own birthday.

Trump is taking a page out of Marie Antoinette's playbook. "Let them eat cake!"

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” as part of his freewheeling, often wild speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

Trump’s proposal has already picked-up steam among his most faithful allies in Washington, D.C. At some point during Trump’s hourlong speech, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she’ll introduce a bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico.

“President Trump’s second term is off to a GREAT start,” she posted to X.

Trump’s most recent comments about Mexico highlight his continued focus on the country as he prepares to begin his second term in the White House. By proposing a name change, in addition to harping on his vanity projects to acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, the president-elect seems to be reasserting his plans for U.S. sovereignty across the globe.

He wouldn’t be the first to toy with renaming the Gulf of Mexico, however. According to ABC News, former Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland, a Democrat, proposed a bill in 2012 that would’ve renamed the gulf “the Gulf of America.”

Holland later admitted, however, that he was just kidding and introduced the legislation as a joke to mock his Republican colleagues for being anti-immigrant.

Trump, who is known for his racist and xenophobic remarks toward Mexicans, didn’t seem to be joking. This is despite the fact that the name “the Gulf of Mexico” actually predated the United States. As the St. Augustine Record noted, the name appears on maps as far back as the 16th century.

Trump’s comments made waves, in part, because he’s currently in an ongoing—and very public—rift with Mexico’s leadership including its president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Despite the two sharing a “wonderful” phone call in late November, they previously butted heads after Trump falsely claimed that Sheinbaum promised to close her country’s northern border with the United States. (Sheinbaum has not publicly responded to Trump’s latest remarks.)

Indeed, any goodwill between Trump and Sheinbaum might be lost after Tuesday’s speech. In the same tirade, he denounced Mexico as a “very dangerous place.”

“We have a massive deficit with Mexico,” Trump said. “We help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, can’t let that happen. Mexico’s really in trouble, a lot of trouble. Very dangerous place.”

Trump has complained about the nation’s trade deficit with both Mexico and China. During his most recent campaign run, he raised concerns about the issue and has since promised to levy tariffs across the board, including a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico.

Trump has a long history of making false, and oftentimes broad, pronouncements about Mexico’s management of its side of the border. But his comments disparaging Mexico on Tuesday were particularly notable, in part, because the Mar-a-Lago news conference was intended to share what was billed as good news.

Before going off-script, Trump announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in the U.S. by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Hosted German Far-Right 'Friends' Who Defend Nazis

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Hosted German Far-Right 'Friends' Who Defend Nazis

President-elect Donald Trump recently hosted several members of the far-right German political party whose top leaders have gone on the record defending Nazi war criminals.

That's according to The Guardian, which reported that a group of AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) members recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Trump's 2024 election victory. The incoming president was seen posing for photos with far-right Bundestag candidate Philipp-Anders Rau, who the Guardian described as a "purported semi-professional, one-time porn actor, self-confessed former cocaine user [and] convicted thief."

The outlet also reported that Trump posed for a photo with Maximilian Krah, an AfD member of the European Parliament who went on the record earlier this year defending members of the Nazi party's infamous Waffen-SS unit. Krah's remarks were considered too extreme even for members of France's far-right National Rally, which said it would no longer sit with the AfD in European Parliament.

In one of the photos, Trump is seen posing with Rau, along with right-wing conspiracy theorist Leonard Jäger, far-right activist Beat Ulrich Zirpel, and Fabrice Ambrosini, who had to step away from a political post in 2021 for allegedly flashing the Hitler salute. Zirpel posted a video to Instagram in which Trump is seen greeting the group saying: "Where's my German friends?" The president-elect also shook their hands, and said "thank you, fellas" after they chanted "fight, fight fight!" (Trump's catchphrase after narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt in July.)

The AfD party — which is known for its ardent anti-immigration stance and Islamophobia — is expected to have a strong showing in Germany's upcoming parliamentary elections on February 23. Phillipp-Anders Rau was introduced to Trump by AfD official Jan Wenzel Schmidt, who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021.

"I was convinced that Trump would become president again, and wanted to make contact with the Republicans early on,” Schmidt told the German newspaperBild. “Other parties are hectically setting out and we already have a good connection.”

Similar to Trump, the AfD has also opposed aid for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. Should the party win a plurality of votes in February, it's likely that Kyiv would lose an additional source of support, as the incoming Trump administration is also likely to cut off U.S. aid for Ukraine.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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