Tag: not draining the swamp

Swamp Things: More Than 50% of President Trump’s Nominees Have Ties to the Industries They’re Supposed to Regulate

The following article by Lachlan Markay and Sam Stein was posted on the Daily Beast website October 29, 2017:

The president has turned federal agencies over to the very CEOs, lobbyists, and lawyers whom they are supposed to regulate.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LYNE LUCIEN/THE DAILY BEAST

In August 2016, energy consultant Steven Gardner gave a presentation to the trade group Professional Engineers in Mining (PDF). In it, he hammered the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for what he said was a highly flawed regulatory process behind the office’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation designed to prevent water pollution near coal production sites. Gardner’s firm, ECSI LLC, had been retained by a coal industry trade group “to conduct a comprehensive critical review of the proposed rule,” which it opposed.

Gardner ended his August 2016 presentation with a slide asking, “What’s next?” that featured a photo of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Contrary to the slide’s projection, Donald Trump prevailed and ended up signing legislation rolling back the Stream Protection Rule. Continue reading “Swamp Things: More Than 50% of President Trump’s Nominees Have Ties to the Industries They’re Supposed to Regulate”

Trump Tweets ‘That’s Politics!’ About Son’s Meeting With Russian Lawyer

The following article by Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 17, 2017:

WASHINGTON — He ran on a promise to end politics as usual.

But on Monday morning, President Trump posted a defense on Twitter of his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer promising sensitive government information that could be damaging to Hillary Clinton by saying that it was simply politics as usual.

In Mr. Trump’s newest tweet about his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and a meeting on June 9, 2016, at Trump Tower, he described the gathering as routine and something almost anyone in politics would have wanted to attend. Continue reading “Trump Tweets ‘That’s Politics!’ About Son’s Meeting With Russian Lawyer”

Big Pharma Swamp Alert: Joe Grogan

The following article was posted on the trumpaccountable.org website June 17, 2017:

Despite Donald Trump campaigning vigorously for more reasonable drug prices for Americans throughout the campaign, the Big Pharma lobby has established itself as a force that Donald Trump is unable or unwilling to challenge. One of the most pointed examples of this is the appointment of Joe Grogan, a lobbyist for pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences for the past five years, to the Office of Management and Budget and the office of health programs.

According to Grogan’s LinkedIn page he worked at Gilead Sciences as “Head of Federal Affairs” for over five years until joining the OMB this March. While at Gilead, Grogan was involved in high profile lobbying – including Gilead’s controversial pricing of drugs developed to cure hepatitis C –  and otherwise worked to represent the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Continue reading “Big Pharma Swamp Alert: Joe Grogan”

President Trump’s commitment to draining the swamp is being tested

The following article by Matea Gold was posted on the Washington Post website June 1, 2017:

President Trump is facing one of the clearest tests yet of his commitment to “drain the swamp,” a chant that echoed through his rallies in the final stretch of the 2016 race.

During the campaign, Trump railed against the influence of swamp-dwellers such as lobbyists, who he accused of pulling the strings of his political rivals. He promised to curtail their influence and keep them from profiting from government.

Continue reading “President Trump’s commitment to draining the swamp is being tested”

White House grants ethics waivers to 17 appointees, including four former lobbyists

The following article by Matea Gold was posted on the Washington Post website May 31, 2017:

Former energy lobbyist Michael Catanzaro received a waiver to work on a broad portfolio of energy issues as a White House adviser. (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

The White House disclosed Wednesday evening that it has granted ethics waivers to 17 appointees who work for President Trump and Vice President Pence, including four former lobbyists.

The waivers exempt the appointees from certain portions of ethics rules aimed at barring potential conflicts of interest. In letters posted on the White House website, the White House counsel’s office wrote that the waivers were in the public interest because the administration had a need for the appointees’ expertise on certain issues. Continue reading “White House grants ethics waivers to 17 appointees, including four former lobbyists”

Trump is Hiring Lobbyists and Top Ethics Official Says ‘There’s No Transparency’

The following article by Justin Elliott was posted on the ProPublica website April 15, 2017:

In one case, an official working on energy regulation recently lobbied for oil and coal companies — but the White House won’t say whether he received an ethics waiver.

President Trump has stocked his administration with a small army of former lobbyists and corporate consultants who are now in the vanguard of the effort to roll back government regulations at the agencies they once sought to influence, according to an analysis of government records by the New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.

The Times adds new details to our previous reporting on Trump’s weakening of ethics rules and former lobbyists working on regulations they opposed on behalf of private clients just months ago.

The Times scrutinized financial disclosures of top White House staffers and found that the lobbyists and consultants in their ranks had more than 300 recent corporate clients and employers, including Apple and Anthem, the insurance company. Continue reading “Trump is Hiring Lobbyists and Top Ethics Official Says ‘There’s No Transparency’”

Swamp

The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website April 15, 2017:

President Trump reversed course on a major policy on Friday. In a dramatic shift from the Obama White House policy, the Trump White House will not release the names of visitors citing national security and privacy concerns.

Judicial Watch, a government watch dog group, blasted the decision in a statement on Friday: “Judicial Watch is disappointed with the Trump White House decision to keep secret the names of White House visitors.  Unfortunately, this move is perfectly in line with the policy of the Obama White House to prevent these visitors logs from being processed and released under the Freedom of Information Act.  President Trump should simply allow the Secret Service to apply FOIA to its White House visitor logs. The Secret Service can protect the personal privacy of some visitors while upholding the rule of law.   This new secrecy policy undermines the rule of law and suggests this White House doesn’t want to be accountable to the American people.”

Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp” claiming that special interests have become entrenched in the operation of the federal government and that they work tirelessly to sustain their own interests over the interests of the American people. Continue reading “Swamp”