Newsweek

This 'Swamp' Has No Drain!

It's a bright new day for lobbyists and special interests in Washington, D.C., who seem to have little trouble gaining access to Trump's White House.
Instead of draining the swamp, Trump might be the best thing that's happened to lobbyists since expense accounts.
2017_02_17_Cover_1280 × 720

Al Mottur admits to not only counting his chickens before they hatched but putting out all the fixings for a fried chicken feast. The veteran Democratic lobbyist went into Election Day assuming Hillary Clinton would be America’s 45th president, and as a member of Clinton’s national finance committee who helped raise more than $1 million for her campaign, that would have been a victory not just for his party but also for his bottom line. “I was thinking, This is going to be great for my firm,” recalls Mottur, a senior partner at D.C. lobbying powerhouse Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck, which represents such companies as Anheuser-Busch, FedEx and Comcast.

As it did for so many others, the election results stunned Mottur; Donald Trump’s victory left him deeply disappointed, personally. Professionally, however, he quickly surmised that his company would be just fine. Several well-connected Republican lobbyists on the team were involved with the Trump campaign, his White House transition team or both, Mottur notes, “so we’ve just been switching our marketing emphasis.”

That’s the same abrupt adjustment dozens of lobbying companies, trade associations and corporations have been making in the months since American voters tapped a bombastic real estate tycoon with zero political experience to be the nation’s next president. Stupefaction and confusion are giving way to hard-nosed capitalism as K Street realizes all the business opportunities to be had. As part of his populist appeal, Trump promised to drain the fetid “swamp” along the Potomac, an incestuous bog

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Newsweek

Newsweek12 min read
The Inconceivable Search For Sperm
SINGLE WOMEN AND LGBTQ+ COUPLES are increasingly pursuing pregnancy via known donors—people they find on the internet, in Facebook groups and through dating-like apps. In her own quest to become a solo mother by choice, investigative journalist Valer
Newsweek3 min read
Newsweek US
GLOBAL EDITOR IN CHIEF _ Nancy Cooper VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL _ Laura Davis DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS _ Melissa Jewsbury OPINION EDITOR _ Batya Ungar-Sargon GLOBAL PUBLISHING EDITOR _ Chris Roberts SENIOR EDITOR-AT-LARGE _ Josh Hammer EDITORIAL Managi
Newsweek5 min read
‘Deadly Risk’ of Fat-Loss Drugs
“MIRACLE” FAT-MELTING DRUG OZEMPIC HAS been linked in a study to a series of rare but potentially fatal psychiatric episodes, scientists have warned. The injectable prescription drug was developed to manage blood sugar levels in patients with Type 2

Related Books & Audiobooks