The White House just plagiarized an ExxonMobil press release
The Donald Trump White House has a decidedly mixed record when it comes to the accuracy of its press releases, but lifting an entire paragraph from someone else's statement? That's unfortunate.
On Monday, Trump released a statement congratulating ExxonMobil for its latest "job-creating investment program." While it's not entirely unheard of for the government to coordinate statements with private companies, issuing copy-and-pasted corporate spin is more unusual (sigh).
Oh, and did we mention that current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was previously CEO of ExxonMobil, where he worked for 41 years?
As Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham quickly noted, a paragraph describing how the oil and gas company is "strategically investing" in Gulf Coast region projects was copied verbatim from Exxon's own release Monday announcing its plans to invest $20 billion over 10 years.
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Here's Exxon's paragraph:
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.
And here's the White House's:
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.
Someone took the time to write U.S. out as United States, though, so it's clearly the job of some poor press office lackey to pay attention to detail.
As the Huffington Post also noted, a quote from Exxon chairman and CEO Darren Woods in the corporate release was also repackaged without attribution in Trump's statement.
Plagiarism aside, the close ties between the presidency and the oil and gas giant have troubled environmental advocates and others for some time. In fact, Tillerson may have met with the president Monday just before the release was issued.
The pair were scheduled to meet Monday at 1:35 p.m. ET in the Oval Office, according to the president's schedule, and the White House statement was issued around 3:45 p.m. Exxon's release was issued at 3:10 p.m. So make of that what you will.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
Topics Donald Trump
Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
