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The fossil fuel industry spent $443 million to put Trump & MAGA Republicans in power, and in return got over $153 billion in subsidies from US taxpayers.
In 2024, the United States’ second-worst year ever for climate disasters, the oil and gas oligarchy quietly executed one of the most shameless pay-to-play deals in modern American history. [1]
On May 9, 2024, oil billionaire Harold Hamm hosted a closed-door fundraiser for Trump at Mar-a-Lago, at which Trump told the twenty oil and gas executives assembled that if they helped finance his 2024 presidential campaign he would implement the industry’s full wish by rolling back environmental regulations and support for renewables, fast tracking approvals for drilling, pipelines and exports, and granting massive tax breaks. [2]
The industry took the offer. In 2024, it spent over $400 million supporting Trump and the GOP in campaign contributions, lobbyist fees, and dark money spending. In return, the fossil fuel industry got everything on its wish list and more.
Here’s what the fossil fuel industry spent on Trump and his allies in Congress:
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$443 million
total spending in the 2023–2024 cycle [3]
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$69 million
to Congressional candidates [4]
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$28 million
to Trump’s campaign and MAGA-aligned PACs [5]
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$179 million
on Congressional
lobbying [6]
The Payoff
Trump has more than delivered on his promises.
As soon as he took office in 2025, he declared a so-called “National Energy Emergency” and began gutting environmental protections.
Trump’s "Big Beautiful" Budget Bill locked in and expanded the fossil fuel industry’s already massive tax subsidies, while ending support for renewables and slashing royalty payments.
Trump has opened up federal lands for drilling, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
His EPA is rolling back climate change regulations, and Trump has used tariff threats to force Japan [7] and Europe to buy U.S. fossil fuels at the expense of their climate change commitments.
He appointed industry insiders to key leadership positions: installing billionaire Doug Burgum—a close ally of Hamm’s—as head of the Interior Department [8] and fracking CEO Chris Wright as head of the Department of Energy [9], giving fossil fuel oligarchs control over federal land and energy policy.
He used force to topple Venezuela's government and open up the country to U.S. oil companies, spiking their stock prices.
These changes will boost profits for the oil and gas oligarchs while the rest of us suffer from climate disasters for decades to come. Many of the industry's gains can’t yet be measured, but even those that can are staggering:
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$110 billion
in extended tax subsidies [10]
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$19 billion
in new tax breaks [11]
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$12 billion
in reduced production royalty rates on public lands [12]
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$12 billion
from the end of methane emission fees [13]
⛽
That’s $153 billion transferred from American taxpayers to Big Oil Oligarchs over the next ten years. A 34,437% return on investment.
In other words, every $1 million the industry spent in putting Trump and MAGA in power has delivered $345 million in benefits for billionaire polluters.
📣
Take Action!
Call on your Member of Congress to support the Resolution
to Defund Oligarchy and Fund the People.
Sources:
1. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disaster.
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20250203014855/https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/05.23.2024%20Letter%20Whitehouse-Wyden%20to%20American%20Petroleum%20Institute.pdf.
3. Total political contributions and lobbying spending for the Oil and Gas, Natural Gas Pipeline, and Coal Mining industries for 2023-24 reported by Open Secrets. Aug 7, 2025. Over 90 percent of this spending benefited the GOP/Right.
4. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/the-fossil-fuel-industry-spent-219-million-to-elect-the-new-u-s-government. This figure omits the gas pipeline industry.
5. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/the-fossil-fuel-industry-spent-219-million-to-elect-the-new-u-s-government. This figure omits the gas pipeline industry.
6. Total political contributions and lobbying spending for the Oil and Gas, Natural Gas Pipeline, and Coal industries for 2023-24, reported by Open Secrets. Aug 7, 2025.
7. https://www.oanda.com/us-en/trade-tap-blog/analysis/fundamental/what-are-implications-of-trumps-energy-policy/.
8. https://westernpriorities.org/2025/01/trumps-interior-nominee-has-an-oil-billionaire-benefactor/.
9. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-energy-secretary-nominee-chris-wright/story?id=115935864.
10. This figure takes into account the value of the fossil fuel tax breaks that Biden would have repealed had he been reelected. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/16/donald-trump-big-oil-executives-alleged-deal-explained. Citing https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/budget_fy2025.pdf, pp 159-160.
11. https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-and-sen-sanders-introduce-legislation-repeal-corporate-welfare-fossil.
12. https://www.resources.org/common-resources/if-then-new-cuts-to-oil-and-gas-royalty-rates-in-budget-reconciliation-will-reduce-federal-revenues/.
13. This figure includes CBO estimates of the impact of the February 2025 Congressional Review Act repeal of Environmental Protection Agency’s methane fee rule, plus CBO estimates of the impact of the July Budget Reconciliation Bill: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-02/hjres35.pdf; https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61570.
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