{"id":567,"date":"2026-06-24T10:10:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=567"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:10:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:10:40","slug":"a-cold-call-to-donald-trump-revealed-what-matters-in-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=567","title":{"rendered":"A cold call to Donald Trump revealed what matters in DC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

My family\u2019s morning routine is usually pretty ordinary. We wake up early, drink some coffee and get our 1-year-old ready for daycare. But one Wednesday morning last month, I found myself uttering to my wife a sentence that sounded frankly surreal to both of us: \u201cJust to let you know, I\u2019m about to call Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Google\u2019s investment in AI tools for A24 sparks backlash<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, hoping to avoid any urgent diaper events, I ducked into the next room and dialed up the president.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been trying to reach President Donald Trump for a few days. Each time, my heart would start pounding. After nearly two decades as a journalist, I\u2019m reasonably used to talking to powerful people. But cold-calling the president of the United States \u2014 on his personal cellphone \u2014 made me feel like a cub reporter all over again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello?\u201d a voice said on the other end of the line. This time, the president had picked up.<\/p>\n

I introduced myself and told Trump I\u2019m a reporter with ProPublica.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m writing a story about a big supporter of yours in the oil industry, Jeff Hildebrand,\u201d I said. \u201cCan I ask what you think about him?\u201d<\/p>\n

By this point I had spent months reporting on Hildebrand, a little-known billionaire \u2014 and major Trump donor \u2014 who owns an empire of low-producing oil and gas wells across the country. \u201cStripper wells\u201d like these contribute relatively little to the U.S. energy supply but emit vast amounts of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

By calling the president, I was hoping for some color on his relationship with Hildebrand. He had, after all, named Hildebrand\u2019s wife ambassador to Costa Rica. My reporting so far had also revealed that the administration was gathering advice from oil industry groups backed by Hildebrand, and that it planned to weaken environmental regulations on stripper wells \u2014 potentially making Hildebrand even richer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear he does a good job,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cDon\u2019t know him very well. OK?\u201d<\/p>\n

At first I thought the exchange undermined my story, making Hildebrand seem less central to the president\u2019s energy policies than I\u2019d suspected. But I realized that Trump\u2019s comments illustrated something important about how this administration works. Trump appeared to have little clue about Hildebrand\u2019s business, but when I mentioned that it was threatened by the \u201cBiden methane rules,\u201d the president was quick to respond, \u201cCertainly we do the opposite of what Biden did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, in other words, may be only vaguely aware of the people and groups helping to rewrite all manner of consequential policies. But what matters in Washington right now are not so much technical policy details but support for the president and an affinity with the broader ideological project: Deregulate everything.<\/p>\n

Even if the president is only loosely familiar with Hildebrand, the oil tycoon is someone you should know about. As a climate reporter, I\u2019m always looking for ways to make the seemingly abstract problem of global warming feel more concrete, approachable and even personal. With Hildebrand, I felt I had found a compelling character who is also the poster boy for a hugely consequential issue: Stripper wells collectively contribute just 6% of the nation\u2019s oil and gas, but scientists have found they\u2019re responsible for roughly half the sector\u2019s methane pollution. That means they play an outsize role in climate change, which is amplifying heat waves, droughts and wildfires.<\/p>\n

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My previous reporting has shown that a former lobbyist for Hildebrand\u2019s company \u2014 who now has a top post at the Environmental Protection Agency \u2014 has been rewriting methane regulations with advice from the oil industry. (An EPA spokesperson said the official \u201cfulfilled all his ethical obligations to the letter.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The EPA\u2019s press office declined to comment on the details of its plans but confirmed it is working on a proposal to \u201cprovide relief\u201d to the oil industry, saying in a statement, \u201cWe heard consistently from American oil and natural gas producers (shocker that we meet with stakeholders) that the Biden-Harris Administration\u2019s oil and gas methane regulations were unworkable and unnecessarily restricted American energy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the story we ultimately published, I took a deep dive into how Hildebrand made his fortune, racking up dozens of environmental violations across the country, and now stands to benefit from the rollback that his former lobbyist is carrying out.<\/p>\n

I asked Hildebrand multiple times for an interview, even sending a letter to his home, but he didn\u2019t respond. A spokesperson for his company, Hilcorp, said its operations complied with state and federal rules, adding that Hilcorp was \u201cproud\u201d of recent efforts to reduce its methane emissions.<\/p>\n

As with many climate change stories, it can all sound pretty bleak. But in a world where global warming fixes can seem impossibly daunting, limiting methane pollution from stripper wells is the rare low-hanging fruit, Andrew Logan of Ceres, a climate advocacy group, told me. \u201cIf you could lose 6% of production and cut emissions in half, who wouldn\u2019t make that trade?\u201d Logan said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Trump administration is doubling down on the forms of energy that contribute most to global warming. In January, the president invited Hildebrand and two dozen other energy executives to the White House to discuss investing in Venezuela\u2019s decrepit oil industry \u2014 which emits more methane, relative to production, than almost any other major oil producing country, according to the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n

Many of the executives couched their enthusiasm with caveats. ExxonMobil\u2019s CEO called Venezuela \u201cuninvestable\u201d without changes to its legal system. The head of ConocoPhillips wanted U.S. government financing.<\/p>\n

But Hildebrand had already seen how loyalty could be rewarded. Even though he had no notable operations outside the U.S., he hunched toward a microphone and said in a halting voice, \u201cHilcorp is fully committed and ready to go to rebuilding the infrastructure in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s good,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unexpected interview with the president revealed DC’s priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,848,237],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-donald-trump","tag-jeff-hildebrand","tag-propublica"],"yoast_head":"\nA cold call to Donald Trump revealed what matters in DC - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=567\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A cold call to Donald Trump revealed what matters in DC - Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An unexpected interview with the president revealed DC's priorities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=567\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-24T10:10:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"headline\":\"A cold call to Donald Trump revealed what matters in DC\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-24T10:10:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567\"},\"wordCount\":1029,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a63cfe86a6d778af3180081a66c96af1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Donald Trump\",\"Jeff Hildebrand\",\"ProPublica\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567\",\"name\":\"A cold call to Donald Trump revealed what matters in DC - Relocation Across America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a63cfe86a6d778af3180081a66c96af1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-24T10:10:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=567#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a63cfe86a6d778af3180081a66c96af1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a63cfe86a6d778af3180081a66c96af1.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"US President Donald Trump speaks after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 23, 2025. 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