Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Slamming Trump For Prioritizing The Wants Of His Big Oil Cronies Over The American People’s Needs

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor on a staggering new report that he and Senator Whitehouse unveiled, which exposes how Trump's blatant corruption has made Big Oil executives richer at the expense of the American people. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Donald Trump's flagrant corruption costs the American people dearly every single day. We all know that.

Just this morning, I joined Senator Whitehouse to unveil our Anti-Corruption Working Group's staggering new report on how Trump's corrupt dealings with Big Oil billionaires are costing the American people a fortune. It's a tale as old as time in Trump's America.

In 2024 - this then was brazen, and [I] knew we were headed for trouble when I saw this back then in the in 2024 Trump invited Harold Hamm and all these Big Oil guys down to Mar-a-Lago and asked them for a billion dollars - a billion dollars - for his campaign in exchange for political favors to boost their bottom line. It was appalling then, [they] played a pay-to-play, and openly done, bragging baldly. I mean, that shows these people have no shame. They have no worries about the strictures of democracy, of morality, of what America has always been all about. No, they brag about it. We'll give you $1 billion, help our oil companies. Ho ho ho. But the American people paid the price.

Big Oil paid up, and boy did Donald Trump deliver.

Trump blocked clean energy projects that would have brought down families' energy costs and powered millions of homes.

The administration shut down the cheapest and fastest sources of energy to build and get- the cheapest source of energy, fastest source of energy. It's the ones that goes quickest on the grid, just so billionaires, Big Oil billionaires, could get even richer.

Many of the same people making these policies are profiting off them. Trump has appointed numerous fossil fuel industry leaders to his administration.

Trump's corruption is not, America, a victimless crime - it never is. Every time Americans see the skyrocketing costs on their electric bill or at the gas station, they know who to blame: Donald Trump and his Big Oil billionaire cronies.

Trump's greed isn't just costing Americans more for energy - it's also costing them their health.

Our report found that the pollution from Trump's Big Oil blitz is driving up Americans' health care costs too. And I want to salute Sheldon Whitehouse, who had a strong hand in putting together this report. He has been steadfast, brilliant, and hard nosed on fighting this corruption, and I salute him again. Americans, all Americans, should salute him for his efforts.

Trump may think he can hide his corruption in the shadows, but, we Democrats in the Senate will continue turning over every rock to expose how his greed is costing the American people.

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