That Swamp, the One Trump Promised to Drain? Well, Think Again.

By now Hillary was supposed to be behind bars, those currency manipulating Chinese were supposed to be reeling and begging for mercy, NATO would be taken down a notch or two, the United States and its people would be luxuriating in the blessings of America First, and "the Swamp," backroom Washington, would be madly draining away.

Only not so much. Trump has surrounded himself with some curious populist reformers. They're in camps. There are the generals, arguably the sane bunch of Trump's cabinet. Then there is Team Goldman Sachs, swamp drainers extraordinaire. Then there's the Billionaire Boys' (and Girls') Club. Finally there's the High Priests of the Trump administration also known as Donald's kids, Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

To Trump, Washington was the temple and he was going to drive out the money-changers. Only, like pretty much everything else he promised, that was electioneering bullshit.

It seems Trump has wasted no time in expanding "regulatory capture" of the federal government. If you're not familiar with the term it describes the situation where membership in government regulatory boards and tribunals is stacked with representatives of the very industries being regulated.


President Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.

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.

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This revolving door of lobbyists and government officials is not new in Washington. Both parties make a habit of it.

But the Trump administration is more vulnerable to conflicts than the prior administration, particularly after the president eliminated an ethics provision that prohibits lobbyists from joining agencies they lobbied in the prior two years. The White House also announced on Friday that it would keep its visitors’ logs secret, discontinuing the release of information on corporate executives, lobbyists and others who enter the complex, often to try to influence federal policy. The changes have drawn intense criticism from government ethics advocates across the city.

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The president has vowed to unwind some of the Obama administration’s signature regulatory initiatives, from Wall Street rules to environmental regulations, and he has installed a class of former corporate influencers to lead the push. Administration supporters argue that appointees with corporate ties can inject a new level of sophistication into the federal bureaucracy and help the economy grow. And efforts to trim regulations in some areas have attracted bipartisan support.

But in several cases, officials in the Trump administration now hold the exact jobs they targeted as lobbyists or lawyers in the past two years.

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Mr. Trump’s own ethics executive order in late January eliminated a requirement, first adopted by President Barack Obama, that executive branch appointees not accept jobs in agencies they recently lobbied. That weakened standards applying to approximately 4,000 executive branch hires.

Mr. Trump also made it easier for former lobbyists in the government to get waivers that would let them take up matters that could benefit former clients.

During the Obama administration, these waivers were given only under a narrow set of circumstances, and had to be filed and explained in an annual report for public inspection, Mr. Shaub said. The waivers were also previously posted on the Government Ethics website. None have been posted since Mr. Trump became president, as sharing them is no longer required.

The Gullibillies who put Trump in office were often heard to say they expected him to bring a business approach to government and that's precisely what they got. Trump is treating the government of the United States as a private enterprise, property of his, his family's and the wealthiest and most powerful people in the USA. The Trump government is now controlled by and in service to a select few and they're bound to jury rig it to their own advantage. Now, how about another tax cut for the richest of the rich. I know, we'll do it in the guise of health care reform.