Trump, at the rally, said he could raise large sums of money if he wanted to by calling oil and Wall Street executives. He proceeded to paint a scenario of what he could do — though Trump said he would not actually make the kind of phone call he described.

“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,” Exxon said on Twitter.

Trump told the rally: “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.”

Trump went on to describe a hypothetical conversation: “How are you doing? How’s energy coming? When are you doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits?”

“When I call the head of Exxon I say, ‘You know, I’d love (for you) to send me US$25 million for the campaign.’ ‘Absolutely sir,'” Trump added.

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

Trump, who has been trailing Biden in opinion polls, has also been trailing his Democratic rival in fundraising.

Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee started the last full month before the Nov 3 election with US$251.4 million in cash, after raising US$247.8 million in September.

The intake was about US$135 million less than what Biden raised in September.