The Trump administration on Monday praised Exxon Mobil for expanding and investing in the US — with words apparently taken straight from an Exxon Mobil press release.
Here’s what Exxon Mobil said in a press release announcing a $20 billion expansion, through 2022, in the US Gulf Coast region:
ExxonMobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company’s Growing the Gulf expansion program, consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.
The expansion isn’t actually that new — it has been planned since 2013 — but that didn’t stop the White House from praising Exxon in a press release of its own, with a very familiar paragraph:
Exxon Mobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the United States Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company’s Growing the Gulf program consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.
The White House version also used a sentence attributed to Exxon CEO Darren Woods in Exxon’s release: “These jobs will have a multiplier effect, creating many more jobs in the communities that service these new investments.”
The twin press releases, whose similarities were first pointed out by the Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham on Twitter, suggest a very cozy relationship between the Trump administration and Exxon — Rex Tillerson, President Trump’s secretary of state, served as the CEO of Exxon Mobil for 10 years. According to Trump’s schedule, the president met with Tillerson at 1:30 pm, roughly two hours before the White House issued the statement.
