Kathryn Burgum applauds as her husband, Republican North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, shakes hands with former U.S. President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump during a caucus night watch party in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 8, 2024.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — a potential candidate for former President Donald Trump’s candidacy — is denying claims that the former president told oil executives he would reduce regulations if elected in return for helping him raise money to collect money to return to the White House.
According to the Washington Post, Trump said earlier this year during a meeting with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, that he would roll back dozens of environmental regulations and policies the Biden administration has put in place introduced new measures and prevented their implementation. That is, if they raised $1 billion to re-elect him.
This donation would make it a “deal” as they would avoid taxes and regulations because of it, he said. Trump also reportedly told executives that he would auction more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I was at that meeting — that didn’t happen,” Burgum said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He didn’t ask for a billion dollars in donations, and there was nothing in return.”
Burgum also denied that Trump was targeting the oil industry to finance his re-election, saying that he was “not targeting anyone” and was “doing what candidates do” by listening to an industry that is “fundamentally “importance for the entire economy”.
In January, Burgum endorsed Trump for president. He ended his bid for the Republican nomination a month earlier in December 2023, after launching his campaign in June of that year, and has been an adviser to Trump on energy policy since then.
Burgum’s family leases 200 acres of farmland in Williams County, North Dakota, to Continental Resources – the largest oil and gas lessee in that state – for oil and gas production.
While his financial disclosure shows he has earned up to $50,000 in royalties from the deal with Continental since the end of 2022, experts told CNBC that he and his family business have likely earned thousands more since signing a deal with the company in 2009 .
Asked whether his approach to the energy industry upset young voters who say climate and environmental policy is important to them, Burgum said he was “not worried about it at all.”
Burgum, who is also a software entrepreneur, announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term as governor. His second term ends on December 14th.
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2024-06-02 20:41:22
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