{"id":1054889,"date":"2025-07-11T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1054889"},"modified":"2025-07-13T20:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T00:32:18","slug":"corruption-watch-instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-white-house-officials-and-lobbyists-are-raking-in-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/corruption-watch-instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-white-house-officials-and-lobbyists-are-raking-in-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"CORRUPTION WATCH: Instead of \u201cDraining the Swamp,\u201d Trump, White House Officials, and Lobbyists are Raking in Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Donald Trump promised to \u201cdrain the swamp,\u201d<\/a> yet under his administration the corruption has never been bigger. Lobbyists, White House officials, and Trump himself are raking in millions, selling influence and favors to the highest bidder. Whether it\u2019s his<\/a> countless<\/a> grifts<\/a> or dropping corruption investigations<\/a> and guardrails<\/a>, Trump has made it clear the White House is up for sale. Trump won\u2019t hesitate to sell out the American people to make a quick buck, and everyone knows it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRIFT: Three senior Trump administration officials sold up to $10 million worth of Trump Media <\/strong>stock<\/strong><\/a> right before Donald Trump tanked the stock market with his chaotic and reckless trade policy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Documents reveal that Dan Scavino, Donald Trump\u2019s deputy White House chief of staff, sold off up to $5 million worth of Trump Media stock just before the president announced tariffs in April. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5The disclosure filings also show that Sergio Gor, Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, sold Trump Media securities valued between $15,001 and $50,000<\/strong> on March 27, just days before the tariffs were announced.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/strong> previously disclosed a divestment of up to $5 million in Trump Media on April 2. The tariff announcement came after the markets closed that day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Bloomberg News reported in May that the president\u2019s net worth had more than doubled to about $5.4 billion since the start of his reelection campaign.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRIFT: Instead of draining the swamp, Trump is helping lobbyists rake in <\/strong>record-setting profits<\/strong><\/a> by selling influence and connections to the administration. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5It is boom time in Washington for the influence industry<\/strong>, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republican lobbyists. The top 10 lobbying firms in Washington took in about $123 million in the first quarter of 2025, compared with about $80 million in the same time frame of both Joe Biden\u2019s presidency and Trump\u2019s first term.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Trump, who once vowed to \u201cdrain the swamp,\u201d has relationships with many of the city\u2019s top lobbyists<\/strong>, who raise money for him and sometimes bring him business opportunities. \u2026 Washington is even less concerned about the appearance of impropriety<\/strong> than usual, longtime consultants say, as Trump finds ways to boost his personal income from cryptocurrency and real estate deals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Several [lobbyists] described a sweet spot of making $3 million to $5 million<\/strong> a year, but staying off [law enforcement\u2019s] radar.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5[Lobbyist] Barry Bennett, admitted last year to illegally failing to register<\/strong> an advocacy group he set up on Qatar\u2019s behalf, and agreed in a deal with the Justice Department that he wouldn\u2019t undertake foreign lobbying work until July 1. The Trump administration dismissed the case last week.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Some foreign government clients are now willing to spend<\/strong> $150,000 a month or more, he said, sums that [Bennett] described as once unheard of.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5[Lobbyist Brian] Ballard, one of the president\u2019s biggest 2024 fundraisers, has taken clients to see Trump at the White House<\/strong> and at his clubs, and was spotted on a recent evening with a trio of clients at the president\u2019s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. \u2026 His firm reported $14 million in lobbying revenue <\/strong>in the first quarter of the year, more than doubling its haul from the previous quarter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRIFT: Trump is setting crypto policy based on his personal profit \u2014 triggering a <\/strong>\u201cbidding war\u201d<\/strong><\/a> to influence policy by funnelling millions into Trump\u2019s pockets. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Crypto advocates<\/strong> who were shunned in Washington during the Biden administration now enjoy astonishing access to the Trump White House, which has quickly unwound the regulatory crackdown.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5<\/strong>All of that resulted from one of the great lobbying free-for-alls in recent history. \u2026 Virtually every step of Mr. Trump\u2019s transformation has been steered by the industry. \u2026 Mr. Trump embraced crypto when he saw it could generate huge profits for himself or his political groups.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5<\/strong>At some points, the only meaningful check on the industry\u2019s power has come from rival crypto interests<\/strong> jockeying against one another to influence Mr. Trump. The competition has at times resembled a bidding war.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5<\/strong>Just this spring, crypto investors around the world spent almost $200 million on a digital token called a memecoin marketed by Mr. Trump, vying for the chance to bend the president\u2019s ear at a dinner.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5<\/strong>The founders of Kraken and Gemini, crypto exchanges that had been sued by the S.E.C., each donated more than $1 million to groups backing Mr. Trump<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Ripple donated nearly $5 million to Mr. Trump\u2019s inaugural committee <\/strong>\u2026 Days after the inaugural fund donation, Ripple\u2019s chief executive, Brad Garlinghouse, attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the president-elect. \u2026 [Ripple\u2019s consultant] Ms. Nocco appealed to the president to include Ripple\u2019s XRP in the stockpile, pointing out that the company had been generous to him<\/strong>, according to six people who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Mr. Trump heeded her request.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5Mr. Trump wrote an addendum to his original post, expanding the list of coins to include Bitcoin as well as Ethereum<\/strong>, the second-most-valuable digital currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb5The update had an immediate beneficiary: [Trump\u2019s] family\u2019s crypto company,<\/strong> World Liberty Financial. It had recently bought a large stash of Ethereum, which rose in value by $33 million<\/strong> after the president\u2019s announcement.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump promised to \u201cdrain the swamp,\u201d yet under his administration the corruption has never been bigger. Lobbyists, White House officials, and Trump himself are raking in millions, selling influence and favors to the highest bidder. Whether it\u2019s his countless grifts or dropping corruption investigations and guardrails, Trump has made it clear the White House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1054889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCORRUPTION WATCH: Instead of \u201cDraining the Swamp,\u201d Trump, White House Officials, and Lobbyists are Raking in Millions - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/corruption-watch-instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-white-house-officials-and-lobbyists-are-raking-in-millions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-11T18:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T00:32:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/corruption-watch-instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-white-house-officials-and-lobbyists-are-raking-in-millions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/corruption-watch-instead-of-draining-the-swamp-trump-white-house-officials-and-lobbyists-are-raking-in-millions\/\",\"name\":\"CORRUPTION WATCH: Instead of \u201cDraining the Swamp,\u201d Trump, White House Officials, and Lobbyists are Raking in Millions - 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