White House praises ExxonMobil with a paragraph copied and pasted from an Exxon press release

It is not the first time the White House has come under fire over its press releases

The White House statement included only minor deviations from the original

A statement from the White House congratulating oil giant ExxonMobil on the expansion of its operations in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to lift an entire paragraph from the company’s press release.

The response from President Donald Trump's administration came about half an hour after Exxon announced plans to create thousands of jobs by spending $20bn over 10 years on plants.

Washington Post data reporter Christopher Ingraham first noticed the identical paragraph in both releases.

The White House statement contains only minor differences, such as changing “U.S” to “United States” and removing the word “expansion” from the sentence “Growing the Gulf expansion program” from the oil company’s release.

Here is Exxon’s release:

“ExxonMobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company’s Growing the Gulf expansion program consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.”

Followed by the White House’s statement:

“Exxon Mobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the United States Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company’s Growing the Gulf program consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.”

On Twitter, US President Donald Trump, whose secretary of state Rex Tillerson was Exxon's chief executive up until December, said: “Buy American & hire American are the principles at the core of my agenda, which is: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! Thank you @exxonmobil.”

“Thank you to @exxonmobil for your $20 billion investment that is creating more than 45,000 manufacturing & construction jobs in the USA!,” he added.

It is not the first Mr Trump’s team comes under fire over its press releases.

The White House, last month, misspelled Prime Minister Theresa May's name three times in an official schedule of her visit to the US.

Last year, First Lady Melania Trump was accused of plagiarism after she appeared to use phrases from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention.