WILMINGTON — Donald Trump pledged to solve the border crisis and cut energy prices in half at his most recent campaign appearance in Wilmington.
READ MORE: ‘Swamp ‘em’: Trump speaks to thousands at ILM, rallies for GOP support
“This election is about the economy and this election is about the border,” the Republican presidential nominee said at the Aero Center Saturday. “And I am your border president.”
The former president pledged to reduce monthly mortgage costs by $1,000, temporarily cap interest rates on credit card debt at 10%, and expand domestic energy production to lower prices.
“Within 12 months your energy prices will be cut in half,” he vowed. “We have more liquid gold under our feet than anybody else and we will rapidly defeat inflation.”
The Federal Trade Commission released evidence in May that the high price of oil from 2021 to 2023 was significantly driven by a price-fixing conspiracy among fossil fuel corporations. Matt Stoller, research director for the American Economic Liberties Project, estimates the oil-pricing conspiracy caused 27% of total inflationary increases in 2021.
FTC’s evidence includes texts and emails between Pioneer Resources CEO Scott Sheffield and high-ranking officials with OPEC — the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — coordinating on prices. Sheffield previously lobbied Trump to push OPEC to limit global production to increase oil and gas prices in 2020; economist Dean Baker blamed Trump’s action for contributing to increased prices in the following years.
Sheffield’s son, Bryan, made the highest donation, $413,000, to the Republican National Committee in the weeks following the FTC action. He also made the highest individual donation of $6,600 to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The Senate Budget Committee launched an investigation of 18 oil-producing companies related to the price-fixing conspiracy in July. Trump told a group of oil industry executives from many of the same companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Chesapeake Energy, and Continental Resources — he would fulfill their regulatory requests in exchange for $1 billion in campaign donations the same month, according to the Washington Post.
According to campaign finance nonprofit OpenSecrets, Trump has received over $14 million from the oil and gas industry for his 2024 campaign.
Trump claimed his competitor, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, would double energy costs by expanding environmental regulations and cutting production. He also argued that unauthorized immigration has increased living expenses for citizens and pledged to “instantly secure” the border.
“A vote for Kamala Harris means 40 or 50 more illegal aliens will invade across our borders, stealing your money, stealing your jobs, stealing your life,” he said.
A July 2024 Pew Research study estimated the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. reached 11 million in 2022. Pew’s figure did not include immigration after mid-2022 that has likely led to higher figures; the U.S. Border Control reported 249,735 encounters with migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico — the highest monthly total on record — in December 2023.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in June to temporarily suspend most asylum cases to “gain control” of the border.
“[Venezuela] has taken their criminals and dumped them into the United States,” Trump told rally-goers Saturday.
He cited a Venezuelan accused of fatally stabbing another Venezuelan in Wilmington last month. The person was arrested in July for domestic violence and is currently in ICE detention.
New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Jerry Brewer told Port City Daily NHCSO coordinates with ICE detainees; he said he would reach out to ICE for local unauthorized migrant crime statistics but PCD did not receive them by press. A 2024 National Bureau of Economic Research report found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born citizens.
Critics, including Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), argue that U.S. interventionist policies in Central America under Republican and Democratic administrations caused the immigration crisis by destabilizing the region.
Biden appointed Elliot Abrams — Trump’s former special envoy to Iran and Venezuela — to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy last year. Abrams has been a foreign policy advisor in three presidential administrations who played an instrumental role providing U.S. support for dictatorships and paramilitary groups in Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
A 2019 Center for Economic and Policy Research analysis estimated Trump administration economic sanctions caused more than 40,000 deaths in Venezuela from 2017 to 2018. Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, admitted to CNN in 2022 that his administration attempted to destabilize and overthrow the Venezuelan government.
In Wilmington, the GOP presidential candidate also spoke about his ongoing legal issues at the rally, including his son Eric’s involvement in the New York Attorney General’s Office fraud trial against the Trump Organization.
“He is the most subpoenaed man in the history of our country,” Trump said. “He’s got more subpoenaes than the late, great Al Capone. Al Capone is like a baby compared to Eric.”
Attendees told Port City Daily they believed Trump would be a better candidate for the economy, immigration, and addressing government corruption.
“Trump knows what he’s doing about running something,” traveling vendor Chad Bowles told Port City Daily. “He can run a business, he’s going to run the country like a business.”
The candidate’s 2023 financial disclosures with the Office of Government Ethics report he earned $1.5 million in income from the Trump Organization’s retail company.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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