Trump’s fossil fuel agenda isn’t about energy security or economic prosperity or any of the bullshit he spouts from the Oval Office. It’s about paying back the oil executives who bought him the presidency. They made an investment and they expect returns. Simple as that. I’d say that there ought to be a law against this - but what would that matter? Here’s a fun fact - for the first time in history, renewable energy has surpassed coal as the world’s leading electricity generator.
Renewables hit 34.3% of global electricity generation in the first half of 2025 while coal dropped to 33.1%. Solar alone grew by 31% and wind by 7.7%. Together they generated more than 400 terawatt hours of additional electricity - which exceeded the total global increase in electricity demand for the same period. You know who’s leading this charge?
China and India. China was responsible for 55% of global solar generation growth and 82% of wind growth - together, more than the rest of the world combined. The country reduced its fossil fuel generation by 2% while solar and wind production surged by 43% and 16% respectively. India added more than 17 gigawatts of solar capacity in 2024 alone. And then there’s the United States - doing the exact opposite.
While developing nations are racing toward clean energy, America under Trump has increased its reliance on fossil fuels.
U. S. electricity demand is growing faster than clean energy production can keep up - largely driven by data centers and AI applications - which means more fossil fuels. The numbers don’t lie. U. S. renewable investment fell 36% from late 2024 as investors responded to Trump’s anti-renewable policies. Meanwhile, European Union investment in renewables surged 63% as companies reallocated capital away from the U.S. market. The International Energy Agency slashed its renewable energy growth forecast for the United States by nearly 50% through 2030.
That’s not a typo. They cut it in half. Why? Because Trump signed a law ending federal tax credits early, imposed new import restrictions, and suspended new offshore wind leasing. Let me paint you a picture of what actually happened.
In April 2024, Trump sat down with oil and gas executives at Mar-a-Lago and made them an offer.
According to witnesses present, he told them to raise $1 billion for his campaign and he’d do their bidding.
Those same people say he called the $1 billion a “deal” because of the taxes and regulations they’d avoid with him back in office. This wasn’t some backroom whisper - this was brazen transactional politics in broad daylight.
The fossil fuel industry responded by pouring money into his campaign.
The numbers vary depending on who’s counting - but estimates range from $96 million to over $219 million in total oil and gas spending to influence the 2024 election. After Trump won, they kept the cash flowing.
They gave $11.8 million to his inauguration fund. Individual oil tycoons like Kelcy Warren dropped $5 million on pro-Trump super PACs. Harold Hamm - an oil billionaire who’s backed Trump since 2016 - donated $1 million and co-hosted fundraisers. Chevron alone gave $2 million to Trump’s inauguration. ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum each ponied up $1 million. And what did they get for their investment?
Everything they asked for. On day one - literally his first day in office - Trump signed an executive order called Unleashing American Energy that rescinded Biden’s climate policies. He abolished the Office of Domestic Climate Policy, and a few weeks later he set up a White House National Energy Dominance Council. He declared a national energy emergency to expedite fossil fuel production. Then in defining what constitutes energy in his emergency declaration, Trump left out wind and solar power.
That’s 14% of the country’s electricity generation that he just pretended doesn’t exist. He halted approvals and renewals of wind energy projects on federal land and waters. He paused funding from the Inflation Reduction Act - the law that directs hundreds of billions of dollars to boost renewable energy. He’s trying to revoke the endangerment finding - the federal government’s formal acknowledgment that global warming from greenhouse gases endangers the public.
If he succeeds, it would erase scores of clean air rules that the industry opposes. And here’s where it gets really absurd. Trump keeps saying America needs to achieve energy dominance and that we need to drill, baby, drill to ensure energy security. But the United States already produces more oil than any country in history. We became the world’s largest oil producer in 2018 and have remained there ever since.
We’re also the world’s largest natural gas producer - ahead of Russia by more than 40%. So when Trump declares an energy emergency because of inadequate energy supply, what he really means is his fossil fuel donors want to drill on protected federal lands for pennies on the dollar and he’s going to let them. The rest of the world is moving forward. Global renewable energy investment reached a record $386 billion in the first half of 2025 - a 10% increase from the previous year.
China is building solar and wind farms at breakneck speed. India is on track to become the world’s second-largest growth market for renewables. Europe is ramping up investment. And America? We’re being dragged backward by a president who’s serving fossil fuel interests while pretending he’s some kind of energy visionary. He’s not making America energy independent - we already were. He’s not lowering energy costs for regular people - those savings go to oil executives.
He’s not creating jobs - clean energy is the main engine of job growth, adding 1.5 million jobs worldwide in 2023 to fossil fuels’ 940,000. What Trump is actually doing is cashing checks from oil billionaires and then handing them the keys to federal policy. It’s a protection racket dressed up as patriotism. The fossil fuel industry spent decades lying about climate change and now they’ve found a president willing to burn the future in exchange for campaign donations.
The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. And the fossil fuel age won’t end because we run out of oil. It’ll end because something better came along. The rest of the world has figured that out. They’re investing in the technology that will power the next century while America clings to the energy source that powered the last one. And the really maddening part?
We’re going to fall way behind. While China dominates solar manufacturing and Europe leads in offshore wind, America will be stuck defending coal plants and arguing about whether climate change is real. By the time we get our heads out of our asses, we’ll be importing renewable technology from the countries that had the foresight to invest in it.
Correction, September 28th, 2026: This essay first said Trump told the oil executives their savings on taxes and legal expenses would more than cover a $1 billion donation - people at the dinner said he called the $1 billion a “deal” because of the taxes and regulations they’d avoid. It also quoted Trump calling Harold Hamm “my original oil guy” - that line has been cut. And it said Trump replaced the Office of Domestic Climate Policy with a White House National Energy Council - he abolished the office, and a few weeks later set up a National Energy Dominance Council by a separate order.
Update, September 28th, 2026: A few lines now stick closer to the record on the Mar-a-Lago meeting, China’s solar and wind growth, the law that ended clean energy tax credits early, India’s renewable growth and clean energy jobs. Apostrophes and quote marks lost in an old publishing glitch are back, each quote checked against its source.