Big Oil models the pathway to regulatory favors under the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump participates in a pull-aside meeting with Javier Milei, President of Argentina, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Tuesday, September 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
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Welcome to Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar, where we provide in-depth explanations of the material consequences—real and potential—of the Trump administration’s corrupt policymaking, with an emphasis on tangible harms to working people. Read our first thirty-four issues here, and follow us on Bluesky and X for more updates on this work.
This past Wednesday, the Supreme Court signaled plans to further tear apart the Voting Rights Act, further cementing the John Roberts-led Court’s role as a key partner in the Trump-MAGA revanchist project. The justices look set to strike down Section 2 of the Act, which essentially requires the creation of majority-minority congressional districts in areas where minority groups represent a majority of the population. The probable result? Freer rein for state legislatures to erode minority groups’ political rights, especially Black Americans in the South.
Meanwhile, over at the White House, the Trump administration launched a new play from the president’s authoritarian playbook. The latest move to silence political opponents is reportedly an effort to shut down left-leaning nonprofit groups, through the politicization of the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal-investigative division. Led by Gary Shapley, an advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Trump administration is set to begin targeting Democratically-aligned foundations and nonprofits with politically-motivated investigations, including the longtime boogeyman of the right, George Soros. Tired of being stymied by career officials who care about the rule of law, Shapley also hopes to overhaul the IRS operating manual to facilitate speedier investigations of the Trump administration’s enemies, ensuring fewer rule-obsessed bureaucrats stand in the way of some old fashioned political score-settling. But taking revenge on Democrats is not the only corruption taking place in the administration.
Big Oil Gets The White Glove Treatment
The Trump administration has continued their war on renewable energy, canceling a massive 6.2 gigawatt solar project in Nevada last week. This is part of the administration’s larger war on solar and wind energy, canceling funding and declaring the renewable sources of energy “essentially worthless.” But Trump’s war on renewables has been only half of the administration’s energy policy, with the White House reportedly providing the oil and gas industry with unique preferential treatment to ensure their priorities are met on time.
The special treatment for Big Oil is unsurprising given the industry’s outsize influence inside the administration. A recent report by our own Toni Aguilar Rosenthal and Public Citizen’s Alan Zibel revealed industry regulators massive conflicts of interest, with more than 40 former fossil fuel company employees now working within the administration.
Perhaps it’s expected that the graft-ridden White House would reward an industry that spent $96 million electing Trump, but the regularity with which the president engages in such brazen corruption does not make the consequences any less dire. With AI data centers consuming more energy at a prodigious rate, and the White House intent on blocking the development of any and all renewable energy sources, the oil and gas industry stands to profit big time while the planet suffers. It’s already evident that this will speed up climate change, worsening the disastrous catastrophes that result from it. Moreover, declining air quality will result in respiratory issues and cancer, problems that will inevitably be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods.
The oil and gas industry does not stand alone with this success though. A recent report found that the Trump administration has reportedly green-lit the rollback of 80% of the regulations industry group, the National Association of Manufacturers, requested the reversal of back in December. A reversal on regulation of PFAS contaminants and greenhouse gas emission standards are among the policies implemented by an administration eager to introduce as many unnecessary hazards to the public.
We desperately require the creation of a communications ecosystem that makes these risks legible to people–essentially, a MAHA movement and network for actual science about real threats!
The Trump Sons Want A Piece Of The Pie Too
Recent news has also reinforced what we already knew to be true – that corruption has become a family affair amongst the Trumps. This week, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was caught asking President Trump for a meeting with one of his sons, Eric or Don Jr., presumably to discuss business in the country, as the Trump organization recently opened a golf club there.
This is not the first time the Trump sons have been found to be likely capitalizing on their father’s power and office. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly made hundreds of millions of dollars during Trump’s first stint in the White House, and Don Jr. and Eric have been making waves in the second administration. Donald Trump Jr. is closely tied to firms in the “prediction market” (read: gambling) sphere, which was recently buoyed by changes in CFTC regulations, while Eric has received preferential treatment from foreign companies in his business dealings.
Reporting this week implicated Donald Trump Jr.-connected firm, 1789 Capital, in the sale of sponsorships and perks to an event they carelessly implied was sponsored by the Department of the Treasury. The company did walk this back after it drew outrage from ethics experts and questions from journalists, but Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent is still set to headline the event later this month. Don Jr. also stands to benefit from the president’s latest push for direct to consumer pharmaceutical sales, which will, in all likelihood, boost big pharma’s profits while making a minimal dent on the astronomical costs Americans face daily.
Not to be left out of the mix, 19 year-old Barron Trump has also been apparently recommended for a position on the board of TikTok by former Trump social media manager Jake Advent. While this is just a recommendation as of now, it’s not outside the realm of possibility considering the pro-Trump leanings of the new owners of the social media company.
Illegal Shutdown RIFs Put Tenants At Risk
Trump has been trying to use the government shutdown as cover to ignore the law and illegally mass fire federal workers. A judge blocked his administration’s reductions in force this week, saying the administration has “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore.” Among Trump’s illegal layoffs were over 400 Department of Housing and Urban Development employees, including the entire team of building inspectors, “leaving the government with no staff in place to conduct or coordinate reviews for thousands of subsidized buildings nationwide.”
As CityLab reports, federal building inspectors do vital work overseeing conditions within federally funded affordable housing such as public housing and units occupied by tenants with housing vouchers. HUD employees coordinate contractors to schedule inspections “at about 12,000 properties per year, testing smoke alarms, plumbing fixtures, electric outlets, door locks, circuit breakers and more, while also checking for lead paint, mold, pests and other hazards.” Without HUD staff to carry out inspections, conditions in subsidized housing could deteriorate with no oversight, with potentially deadly consequences. Just weeks ago, a gas explosion occurred in a Bronx public housing project. While no one was injured, firing inspection staff opens the door to more potentially deadly accidents under Trump’s watch.
Assorted Scams, Graft And Corruption
Donald Trump is apparently selling his own brand of watches, with commercials reportedly regularly appearing on pro-Trump news channel Newsmax. This is just the latest in a string of products, payoffs and scams that have enriched the president and his family since entering office, including the sale of documentary rights, a cryptocurrency memecoin, another crypto venture, legal settlements, and even a Trump-branded bible.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is likely violating the Hatch Act by demanding a video she recorded, blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown, be played at airports around the nation.
Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is also wielding FEMA disaster funds like a cudgel, withholding funds from disaster sites unless they certify that population figures do not include immigrants deported by the Trump administration. Given the administration’s use of ICE as a means of punishing blue municipalities, this is yet another way the Trump administration has sought to punish its political enemies.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s Department of Education is working to funnel public funds away from public schools, with pro-charter school activists and conservative ideologues staffing crucial roles within the Department.
Scammers are also expected to take advantage of the government shutdown by preying upon Americans’ uncertainty, targeting Social Security beneficiaries for new scams.
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