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Wright Tells Glenn Beck the Loan Programs Office Rushed Out $93 Billion Between Election Day and Inauguration

May 8, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:03:52

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Glenn Beck to discuss the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, in the interview the Department of Energy uploaded. Wright said the office, created under President George W. Bush, had made about $42 billion of loans over 15 years up to election day 2024, and that in the 76 days between President Trump’s reelection and inauguration nearly two and a half times as much — $93 billion — was either lent out or committed, as he stated the figures. He called that pace irresponsible underwriting rather than a sudden discovery of good opportunities, as he characterized the lending.

Wright divided the late loans into two categories as he presented them: loans to companies with very little capital backing or successful business of their own, much of which he said will probably be losses for taxpayers, and loans to large companies — naming a century-old auto manufacturer and a large electric-vehicle company partly owned by Amazon — that he argued did not need low-cost government money because they could access capital markets, as he made the case. He attributed the rush, in his assessment, to a climate justification serving money and power interests, as he characterized the motives.

Asked how much money can be recovered, Wright said the department is working hard at it daily: commitments that are not legally compliant can be stopped, but closed, signed legal obligations will be honored under the rule of law, and he estimated there is a large amount — tens of billions of dollars — that the department can still do something about, as he stated the recovery outlook.

Why it matters

The Beck interview is the administration’s loan-office indictment with specific arithmetic — $42 billion in 15 years against $93 billion in 76 days — and a stated recovery program bounded, Wright conceded, by the legal force of the deals already closed.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright’s May 7, 2025 figures for Loan Programs Office activity — $42 billion over 15 years before election day 2024 and $93 billion lent or committed in the 76 days after — and his estimate that tens of billions remained recoverable, flagged for the scoreboard editor; no verdict is entered here.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Glenn Beck - May 7, 2025”, 2025-05-08 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-08). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.