House Democrats investigate whether Trump promised oil executives he would undo Biden’s climate policies

Democrats in the US House of Representatives are investigating Donald Trump after he reportedly promised oil company executives that he will undo certain climate policies if they fund his return to the White House.

Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee sent letters to nine oil executives on Monday asking for information about their meeting with Mr Trump in Florida.

The letter asks the executives to reveal whether Mr Trump proposed a “quid pro quo” arrangement to them.

“Media reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance and legal issues that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions,” Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee, wrote in the letter.

Mr Trump allegedly solicited a $1bndonation from oil executives during a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month in exchange for reversing many of president Joe Biden’s climate policies if elected, The Washington Post reported.

Politico reported that the same oil companies are drafting executive orders for the former president to sign if he returns to the White House. One order purportedly seeks to reverse Mr Biden’s pause on natural gas export permits. The president issued the pause in January as his government evaluated the industry’s impact on the climate crisis.

“This was a very focused small group directed at a particular industry, there was an amount put out there of $1bn, which he described as a deal, which all raises questions about the transactional nature of the meeting,” Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Guardian.

Karoline Leavitt, a