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Billionaire Republican donor Harold Hamm says the party needs a candidate who is free from the “chaos” that has dogged the former president, who is facing multiple criminal investigations, calling Donald Trump a white man. I told him to withdraw his candidacy for the House.
The Oklahoma oil tycoon, who President Trump was considering to become energy secretary in 2016, spoke by phone with the former president in May, calling him the party's “kingmaker,” a very influential role for him. ” and urged them to support another candidate rather than seek the party's nominee. Return to the office.
“I know he wasn't happy about it,” Hamm said in an interview with the Financial Times last week about his phone call with Trump. “That's all I can do. I don't know how seriously he takes that recommendation.”
Trump and Hamm had a private dinner Sunday night at the former president's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. A Trump ally familiar with the dinner said the conversation was “positive” and Hamm “left the door open” to future support, but said he had not yet endorsed any candidate. Ta. A spokesperson for Ham acknowledged this trait.
After speaking to the FT about the call, Hamm suggested in a statement late last week that he would support the former president in the general election if Trump were the nominee. “I support anyone who runs against Joe Biden,” he said.or [California governor] Gavin Newsom, or any other far-left candidate they can field. ”
Recent polls show Trump has a wide lead over other Republicans running for their party's nomination.
Hamm also said in the interview that he would like Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to run for the White House. Ham flew to Richmond, the state capital, to meet Youngkin this spring, then met her again in Dallas, Texas, where she urged him to join the race.
“He did a great thing by winning in a purple state. He's very popular,” Hamm said.
Mr. Youngkin, a former Carlyle executive, has sent mixed signals about whether he intends to launch an 11th-hour bid for the White House this year.
Dave Rexrode, Youngkin's senior adviser, said, “Mr. Ham's support for the governor, and the support of many others who are looking at Virginia and thinking about what can be accomplished by focusing on common sense results,'' I am grateful to you.”
Rexrode added that Youngkin's team is “working hard” in preparation for November's Virginia election, when voters will choose their state representatives.
Hamm's comments, one of the most vocal executives in the U.S. oil industry, support Trump's pro-fossil fuel policies while also threatening to overturn the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the 2020 election. It echoes comments made privately by others in the industry who were displeased with Mr. Trump after his efforts to do so. result.
“January 6th tore many people apart.” [Republican] party. . . The fact that he didn't accept the results,” Ham told the FT. This country now needs a “clean slate'' to escape from “division and chaos.''
“That's not the case with any other candidate,” Hamm said, calling for candidates to remain in office longer than the constitutional limit for Trump's second term as president, which is four years. He added that there is.
“There are some things you can't get around, like the four-year limit,” he says. “We need someone who will be there for eight years to undo the damage of the Biden administration.”
Mr. Hamm has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration's energy and climate strategy for restricting oil and gas drillers, but production companies such as Continental Resources, which Mr. Hamm took private last year, are under Russian control of all of Ukraine. Since the invasion, they have reported huge profits.
millionaire book Game Changer: Our 50-Year Mission to Ensure America's Energy Independence It will be released Tuesday and does not endorse any Republican candidates. But in an interview with the FT, Ham praised the energy policies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who pioneered the horizontal drilling technology that sparked the shale revolution.
Hamm, who has an estimated net worth of more than $20 billion, donated $6,600 to DeSantis and his campaign in the second quarter of this year and served as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's political action committee member, according to campaign finance filings. He donated $16,600 to the organization. march. He said Haley is “an inspiration to women around the world” and would make an excellent vice president.
Mr. Hamm donated $1.25 million to Mr. Trump from 2016 to 2020, according to the filing. Hamm said the men remain friends. He told the FT last year that he wished Mr Trump would be “more loyal to the people”. . . Everyone who worked hard around him. ”
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
