Left: Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Right: Photo by: XNY/STAR MAX/IPx 2026 1/5/26 Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on January 5, 2026 in New York City.
During the 2024 election, then-candidate Donald Trump had a secretive meeting at his Mar-a-Lago home with oil executives and asked them to spend $1 billion in his 2024 bid to return to the White House. According to Politico, attendees "included executives from oil companies Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources as well as from natural gas producer EQT and gas exporter Cheniere Energy, and the trade association American Petroleum Institute."
The oil industry didn't spend the $1 billion that Donald Trump asked for, at least not in a public way. On the record, the Guardian tallied $445 million was spent by the oil industry in the 2024 election.
Corporations are not allowed to give money directly to federal candidates. But they sidestep this prohibition by giving to Super PACs that spend money in U.S. elections and that is how money from Big Oil got into the 2024 election. According to OpenSecrets a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks money in politics, Koch Industries spent over $49 million in the 2024 election; Chevron spent over $10 million, Occidental Petroleum spent over $7 million in the 2024 election; ConocoPhillips spent over $6 million in the 2024 election; Devon Energy spent over $6 million in the 2024 election and the American Petroleum Institute spent over $6 million in the 2024 election, Valero spent over $5 million in the 2024 election. Most of this money went into electing Republicans to the House and Senate. Global powerhouse Exxon Mobil spent a comparably smaller $80,000 in 2024.
Meanwhile, Continental Resources spent over $6 million in the 2024 election cycle, $3 million of which went directly to the Make America Great Again Inc. PAC which supported Trump's election. The CEO of Continental Harold Hamm spent an additional $2 million personally at least $1 million of which went to Make America Great Again Inc PAC. Another big spending oil CEO was Kelsy Warren of Energy Transfer Partners who spent over $12 million, with $5 million going to the Make America Great Again Inc PAC. The company Energy Transfer Partners spent an additional $1 million during the 2024 cycle.
The figures above could understate the spending by oil companies and their CEOs because roughly $2 billion in dark money was spent in the 2024 elections. Dark money is money that is reported as spent but without naming the underlying donors. The public cannot tell if Exxon or any other company was a big dark money spender. Thus it is entirely possible that the oil industry gave the full $1 billion that Trump demanded back in 2024 at Mar-a-Lago.
We also do not know how much they gave to the Trump White House ballroom, but Harold Hamm and NextEra Energy are listed as donors to that $300 million vanity project.
After candidate Trump was reelected, the oil industry gave an additional $19 million to fund Trump's second inauguration in 2025.
What did the oil industry get in return for this campaign cash? Political scientists will spend years untangling this mystery. But at a glance there are lots of policy benefits flowing to the oil industry. In July 2025, President Trump issued an executive order trashing renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" which he signed into law scaled back tax incentives for renewable energy and it ended tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs). The BBB also contained $40 billion in new subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
But the biggest plum for the oil industry may be President Trump's decision to arrest the President and First Lady of Venezuela. Venezuela has some of the richest oil reserves in the world. President Trump told reporters that he alerted oil companies about the strike to take out the head of Venezuela before it happened and that "They want to go in." Only time will tell whether American oil companies who were so generous in supporting Trump and his party will reap more spoils from Venezuela on top of their domestic wins.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is the author of "Corporatocracy," the broadcaster of Democracy & Destiny, and a professor of law at Stetson University.
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