Fossil fuel backers bemoan Trump's inability to stay on message. [View all]

A "good" message delivered by an incompetent messenger. Yeah, that's the ticket!

________________________________________________

Source: Politico

Trump’s ‘meme-level’ energy attacks aren’t landing, fossil fuel supporters concede

The GOP nominee has made dubious claims about U.S. oil output, pipelines and Vice President Kamala Harris’ plans for fracking, experts say, ignoring some easy targets.

By Ben Lefebvre and Zack Colman
09/13/2024 06:20 PM EDT

Donald Trump’s jumble of claims about energy policy is muddling what could be a winning attack on one of Kamala Harris’ biggest potential vulnerabilities.

Instead of a disciplined focus on one or two themes — such as the Biden era’s record-high gasoline prices and Harris’ flip-flop on banning fracking — Trump has spent weeks rollicking from message to message on energy, false and otherwise. Those include exaggerating his own efforts to block construction of a Russian natural gas pipeline in Europe, as well as offering what analysts call a massively inflated claim about how much his policies could have boosted the United States’ already world-leading oil production.

Trump’s constant ping-ponging has shown up in his rallies, his speech on economic policy last week in New York, and Tuesday’s prime-time debate with Harris. At the debate, his flurry of messages took time away from what should have been his main focus on energy, said longtime Republican campaign strategist David Kochel, who is not advising the Trump campaign.


“It’s almost incoherent,” Kochel said. “In the debate, he was clearly flustered. It’s very difficult for him to actually prosecute a single strategy. He was just all over the place.”

An oil industry lawyer agreed, saying Trump’s discussion of energy was “meme level.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/13/trump-energy-message-incoherent-claims-00178784