ExxonMobil hangs up on Trump's phone call claim

ExxonMobil said no phone call took place between its boss Darren Woods and Donald Trump despite the President appearing to suggest he called the oil executive about a donation for his campaign.

At a rally in Arizona on Monday, Mr Trump boasted that he could raise more money than his Democratic rival Joe Biden by calling executives in the oil industry and on Wall Street.

He said: "Don’t forget, I’m not bad at that stuff anyway, and I’m President. So I call some guy, the head of Exxon. I call the head of Exxon. I don’t know."

Exxon said no call took place. It tweeted: "We are aware of the President’s statement regarding a hypothetical call with our CEO … and just so we’re all clear, it never happened."

Mr Trump even went on to describe a hypothetical conversation between the pair.

"How are you doing? How’s energy coming? When are you doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits?"

He added: "When I call the head of Exxon I say, 'You know, I’d love [for you] to send me $25m for the campaign'. 'Absolutely sir'.

"I will hit a home run every single call. I would raise a billion dollars in one day if I wanted to. I don’t want to do that."

The tweet from Exxon generated a large number of responses on Twitter, with many users debating the statement as well as poking fun at both Trump and big oil.

Exxon has donated about $1.5m (£1.2m) to Republican and Democratic candidates in this election cycle.

Despite Mr Biden pushing for a transition to renewable energy, the oil major sent more than two-fifths of its contributions to Democratic candidates and parties, up from a third during the last presidential election.

The company rarely uses its Twitter account and it was the first time in at least a year that Exxon tweeted about its relations with Mr Trump.