When you consider the ethical disaster that is the Trump regime, it becomes clear that if there’s one swamp Donald Trump has successfully drained, it’s the one that was filled with potential jokes about swamp-draining. All of those have been let loose into the world, and there are no more potential original jokes about swamp-draining and we are still badly in need of them as we learn the details of the layers of muck and alligators and leeches Trump has installed in government.
While the White House is busy keeping its visitor logs hidden so the public doesn’t know what lobbyists are in and out on a daily basis, it’s also staffing the government with people who until months ago were working as lobbyists on the issues they’re now setting official policy on. But didn’t Trump have some kind of ethics pledge, something about lobbyists? Not when it matters. The New York Times and ProPublica have taken a deep dive to show the degree to which ethics conflicts are business as usual in the Trump White House:
In at least two cases, the appointments may have already led to violations of the administration’s own ethics rules. But evaluating if and when such violations have occurred has become almost impossible because the Trump administration is secretly issuing waivers to the rules.
One such case involves Michael Catanzaro, who serves as the top White House energy adviser. Until late last year, he was working as a lobbyist for major industry clients such as Devon Energy of Oklahoma, an oil and gas company, and Talen Energy of Pennsylvania, a coal-burning electric utility, as they fought Obama-era environmental regulations, including the landmark Clean Power Plan. Now, he is handling some of the same matters on behalf of the federal government.
Then there’s the guy who went from lobbying the Transportation Security Administration to buy a specific kind of scanner to being chief of staff at the TSA as it considers whether to go all in on those scanners. And the retirement policy specialist who was previously a lobbyist against President Obama’s efforts to protect retirees. And the … you get the picture. There are plenty more examples of people going from being lobbyists or otherwise profiting directly from an industry to being in charge of regulating or setting policy on that industry—but because of the Trump team’s lack of transparency, it’s hard to even know where all the conflicts of interest are, exactly which lobbyists-at-heart are dismantling which consumer, worker, or environmental protection.
Oh beautiful for spacious swamps, for murky pools of swamp ...