May 30, 2024 12:24 PM UTC

If You Lie Down with Trump, You'll End up Orange

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• by: Colorado Pols

“Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent.”

If you don’t speak Latin — and there’s really know reason you should — you might not recognize that this is a statement that should seem quite familiar. The English version is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.”

When it comes to dealing with former President Donald Trump, the Latin should get an update:

“Qui cubat aurantiacis exsurget aurantiaca.”

Or, in English: “He that lieth down with orange people shall rise up orange.”

As we noted earlier this month, Trump is pushing the boundaries of campaign finance law by openly asking for massive campaign donations in exchange for lofty promises should he return to the White House in 2025. In April, Trump asked a group of oil and gas executives at Mar-a-Lago to donate $1 billion dollars to his 2024 Presidential campaign in exchange for pledges to cut all sorts of regulations and open up new drilling access across America.

Trump has since expanded his pay-for-play fundraising efforts. As Josh Dawsey reports for The Washington Post:

When Donald Trump met some of the country’s top donors at a luxurious New York hotel earlier this month, he told the group that a businessman had recently offered $1 million to his presidential effort and wanted to have lunch.

“I’m not having lunch,” Trump said he responded, according to donors who attended. “You’ve got to make it $25 million.”

Another businessman, he said, had traditionally given $2 million to $3 million to Republicans. Instead, he said he told the donor that he wanted a $25 million or $50 million contribution or he would not be “very happy.”

As he closed his pitch at the Pierre Hotel, Trump explained to the group why it was in their interest to cut large checks. If he was not put back in office, taxes would go up for them under President Biden, who vows to let Trump-era tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations expire at the end of 2025…

…The remarks are just one example of a series of audacious requests by Trump for big-money contributions in recent months, according to 11 donors, advisers and others close to the former president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his fundraising. The pleas for millions in donations come as the presumptive Republican nominee seeks to close a cash gap with Biden and to pay for costly legal bills in his four criminal indictments. [Pols emphasis]

Trump is toeing the line, and leaning way over it, with such explicit fundraising requests. He may technically be on safe ground by the letter of the law; regardless, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) is so inept or indifferent to the breaking of campaign finance laws that it could take years for the gridlocked board to get around to even sending a stern letter to Trump’s campaign.

But that doesn’t mean the Trump grift isn’t going unnoticed. As Lisa Friedman of The New York Times reported last week:

Senate Democrats opened an investigation on Thursday into former President Donald J. Trump’s meeting with oil and gas executives last month to determine whether Mr. Trump offered a “policies-for-money transaction” when he asked for $1 billion for his 2024 campaign so he could retake the White House and delete President Biden’s climate regulations.

The investigation is the second congressional inquiry into the April 11 fund-raising dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida. Over a chopped steak dinner, Mr. Trump told about 20 oil and gas executives that they would save far more than $1 billion in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several people who were present and who requested anonymity to discuss a private event…

…In letters sent Thursday morning to top executives of eight oil companies and a trade group, the chairmen of two Senate committees, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, sought details of the executives’ participation in the meeting and accused them and Mr. Trump of engaging in a quid pro quo.

It’s one thing for Trump to make ethically- and legally-questionable requests of potential donors — Trump, after all, is not a man who has even been overly concerned with “right” or “wrong” — but the people on the other end up those requests may not feel as comfortable. And those oil and gas executives are also learning that the price of even being in the room for such dubious discussions may be heavy indeed.

Here’s Matt Egan of CNN reporting on a different investigation into the oil and gas industry:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and nearly two dozen Democrats pressed the Justice Department on Thursday to launch an industry-wide investigation into Big Oil for alleged collusion and price fixing.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Schumer and his colleagues expressed “serious concern” about “alarming” allegations from federal regulators that a Texas oil tycoon tried to conspire with OPEC to inflate oil and gasoline prices.

“The federal government must use every tool to prevent and prosecute collusion and price fixing that may have increased gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and jet fuel costs in a way that has materially harmed virtually every American household and business,” the letter from Senate Democrats said.

The lawmakers urged the DOJ to investigate the oil industry, “hold accountable any liable actors” and halt illegal activity.

This investigation is focused on reports about major O&G producers colluding to artificially raise gas prices. A recent investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Scott Sheffield, the longtime CEO of a leading Texas oil producer called Pioneer Natural Resources, had engaged in numerous discussions with OPEC officials over pricing proposals.

While this Senate move is not directly related to Trumpo’s fundraising requests, any suggestion of a potential “quid pro quo” between the O&G industry and Trump only increases the heat in both investigations.

There’s a saying that “everything Trump touches dies.” That saying has largely proven to be accurate since Trump came down the escalator in 2015, and it has never been more accurate.

If you get in bed with Trump today [shudders], you won’t be the same when you stand back up.