Drain the Swamp? MAGA Lobbyists Say They’re ‘Drinking from a Fire Hose.’

 https://www.thefp.com/p/drain-the-swamp-maga-lobbyists-say?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Since 2016, Donald Trump has promised his supporters that he will “drain the swamp”—the president’s catchall pledge to end corruption in Washington. But as his second administration gets busy remaking the federal government, business is good for one of D.C.’s most lucrative—and “swampiest”—lines of work: lobbying. And for those lobbyists enmeshed in MAGA World, business has never been better.

Trump has long promised to clean up Washington. On the campaign trail in 2016 he committed to “a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.” But that pledge has long been forgotten. In the 2024 election, lobbyists registered as agents of foreign governments helped raise more than $10 million for Trump, according to research by Issue One.