To: Interested Parties
From: Megan Jacobs, Vice President of Paid Communications and Elections, LCV Victory Fund
RE: What we don’t expect from Trump on the final night of the RNC

————————————————————————————————————————-

If Trump’s stump speeches are any indication, his speech to close out the RNC tonight is bound to include a slew of lies and misinformation about climate change, clean energy and his record on the environment. But the reality is, convicted felon Trump was the most anti-environmental president ever, rolling back over 100 environmental protections. He has shown time and again that he is willing to say or do anything– including make backroom deals with Big Oil– to win this election because he is in it for himself. The truth is he has vowed to be a dictator on day one specifically to roll back the historic progress made by the Biden Administration with an oil executive’s wish list that will raise costs for families, endanger hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, and jeopardize the health of our communities. Here are a few of the things we expect Trump NOT to mention tonight:

Project 2025

Despite Trump’s weak attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda, written by former members of his own administration, is in total alignment with what Trump himself says about his energy policy. Project 2025 is a clear threat to our rights, freedoms and democracy and what’s more, the recently released RNC platform outlines nearly identical policies. Trump won’t say Project 2025, but that doesn’t change the fact that he would actively force the federal government to deny the reality of climate change while trying to end the development of a clean energy economy that lowers costs, creates high-paying, family-sustaining jobs, and tackles the climate crisis head on. The dangerous agenda outlines rollbacks of renewable energy, removing energy efficiency standards for household appliances, and cutting back tax credits for hardworking families while increasing fossil fuel production just to increase the bottom line for the ultra wealthy. It even calls for the elimination of the National Weather Service in order to privatize this vital public service and censor science about climate change.

All we are seeing from Trump and his loyalists are plans to strip away environmental protections, prioritize Big Oil’s wish list, and even sell off public lands. Project 2025 outlines clear plans to remove the protections on public lands, including the Arctic, in order to open the lands for drilling and 1984-style claims that greenhouse gas emissions are not harmful to the health and well-being of people. Meanwhile, as of this week, the Biden administration has protected 41 million acres of public lands, including in the Arctic to safeguard them from gas and oil leasing.

Allegiance to Big Oil 

Trump has been vocal throughout his campaign about his plans for Big Oil. Behind closed doors he brazenly offered to give oil and gas executives free rein in exchange for $1 billion in donations to his campaign. Not only that but, Trump himself has even said he would be a “dictator for one day” to accelerate oil drilling. If he is successful, Big Oil will be ready and waiting to take him up on that offer – lawyers for oil executives have already written executive orders for Trump to sign on day one.

Although Trump has talked a lot about costs, including gas, what he has conveniently left out is that Project 2025’s agenda and his deal with Big Oil will likely lead to increased price gouging at the pump. The truth is U.S. oil executives have been accused of colluding with OPEC to keep gas prices high and Trump is willing to cosign and end investments for the clean energy economy that is helping to lower costs for families across the country. He has made it clear that he is in this race for himself and will always prioritize Big Oil and Big Polluters wish lists at the expense of the health and safety of our families, communities and environment.

Extreme Weather and the impacts of Climate Change

This summer alone we have seen extreme heatwaves in the Midwest and Northeast, hurricane Beryl in the Gulf, wildfires in the West, and extreme flooding, but don’t expect Trump to acknowledge it. This extreme weather is not normal, but is actually a symptom of the impacts of climate change pollution, which Trump and MAGA Republicans attempt to deny and ignore. The MAGA-backed Project 2025 not only includes disbanding climate research but also “dismantling” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which houses the National Weather Service. It’s no secret that Trump has an extensive record of calling climate change a hoax, rolling back 100 environmental protections, opposing clean energy actions, and siding with Big Oil and Big Polluters. The closest Trump has come to acknowledging extreme weather is subjecting his own followers to hours in extreme heat where he told them “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote.”

In stark contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has made more progress on the climate crisis than any other U.S. president, enacting more than 300 climate actions supporting clean energy, good-paying jobs, environmental justice, conservation efforts, and standing up to Big Oil and Big Polluters. Over the past four years, the administration has worked to build a clean energy economy that is lowering costs for working families, providing more than 300,000 high-paying, family sustaining jobs and protecting our environment. The choice could not be clearer this November– Trump is a power hungry felon who is determined to feed corporate greed by cosigning Big Oil’s wish list and implementing Project 2025. With a Trump-Vance administration we will only see increased tax cuts for corporations, more pollution in our air and water, higher costs for working families and revocation of all the climate progress that has been made.

More on Trump’s record can be found here and here.

###

Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.