REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
A White House press release on a new ExxonMobil expansion appears to have lifted an entire paragraph from ExxonMobil’s press release on the expansion, The Washington Post reports. The two passages are identical, with the exception of the words “United States,” which appear in full in the White House statement and abbreviated in ExxonMobil’s release. Both passages laud ExxonMobil’s expansion into new facilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The ExxonMobil statement was released at 3:10 p.m. Monday, while the White House statement appears to have been released shortly afterward. President Donald Trump tweeted a link to the White House statement at 4:19 p.m. The Trump administration has direct ties to ExxonMobil, whose former CEO Rex Tillerson is now secretary of State.