President Donald Trump dazzled a rally audience in Arizona on Monday by describing a scenario in which he could—-if he really wanted to do so, that is-—shake down a company like ExxonMobil for millions of dollars in campaign cash.
“So, I call some guy, the head of Exxon, I call the head of Exxon–I don’t know” he told the crowd. “I’ll use a company. ‘How, how are you doing, how’s energy coming? When are you doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits, huh?’ Okay, but I call the head of Exxon, I say, ‘You know, I’d love you to send me $25 million for the campaign.’”
“Absolutely, sir,” Trump continued–using a mock voice apparently intended to reflect an obsequious oil industry CEO happy to engage in the transaction: “Why didn’t you–yes, would you like some more?”
The regaling tale of corruption was seemingly delivered as a sort of combined hypothetical, joke, and attack on his political opponents but several high-profile commentators took the president quite seriously, sharing a brief edit of the video.
“He just confessed to a crime,” wrote Center for American Progress President and CEO Neera Tanden in a series of tweets. “On TV. Some people who want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt – unearned in my opinion – say he’s saying he could shake people down but he hasn’t. I tend not to believe that. At all.”
Exxon even felt the need to respond.
“We are aware of the President’s statement regarding a hypothetical call with our CEO…and just so we’re all clear, it never happened,” the company said from its official Twitter account.