Trump will tour oil rig in Midland this week

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is making his 16th presidential trip to Texas on Wednesday, this time to tour an oil rig in Midland as he touts his efforts to help that industry recover.

His trip comes amid a downturn caused by an oil glut and the coronavirus pandemic that cost another 446 Texans their jobs over the past week. Still another 537 could be out of work if their employers can't sort out bankruptcy issues.

The president will visit a part of Texas that has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, which has caused short-staffed hospitals to turn away transfer patients.

Trump is expected to play up his deregulatory agenda, as well as the 2017 income tax cuts, which the White House says have expanded energy production.

“The president saw the pain caused in the energy industry by the price collapse and demand shock that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, and took decisive action to help,” a White House official said in a statement. “America's energy industry is now contributing to the nation's economic recovery, and the president will continue to support the industry as it rebuilds.”

Trump is set to visit Double Eagle Energy, a mid-sized crude oil and natural gas exploration, development and production company with 160 workers. Double Eagle Energy produces approximately 50,000 barrels of oil per day across 530 wells, according to the White House.

The president's latest trip to Texas comes after a series of polls showed him essentially tied with former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas. No Democratic presidential candidate has won Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Trump has downplayed what he called “phony polls” that showed him neck-and-neck with Biden in Texas.

“I saved the oil industry, two months ago I saved the oil industry,” he said. “I created it. We became No. 1. We have millions of jobs and we saved it so Texas is not going to have to let go of millions and millions of people.”