Drain the swamp!

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Another Trump swamp creature, his trade representative Lighthizer, now busting the world economy..

Their gift was knowing where the money was and going after it with verve. In 1992, Lighthizer and Alan Wolff, a frequent collaborator from another law firm, planned a gluttonous feast for the creatures of Washington’s swamp. Together, they sent the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission “two million pages of documents in 650 boxes” according to The New York Times. The filings documented allegations of unfair trading practices, which, if upheld, would lead to tariffs against American firms’ overseas competitors. To save their business, foreign steelmakers would have to join in the legal feeding frenzy, making Washington’s trade lawyers the one guaranteed winner. “This is a fat pig, and they all want a slice of it,” Lighthizer told the Times. “Every single person in town will be working on this, every single one.”

Robert Lighthizer's Bid to Cut China's Trade Influence - The Atlantic

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More swamp creatures, the Adelson's. Huge donations in exchange for shaping policy and honors rewards..

When Dr Miriam Adelson was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s top civilian honor, by Donald Trump in November, the public response ranged from disdainful to “who?” Her husband, the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is widely known for his record donations to Republican causes, as well as passionate support for conservative Israeli interests. Many news articles about the award described Miriam solely as his wife. But Miriam’s influence has been deeper than many credit, although she appears to have been perfectly comfortable remaining in her 85-year-old husband’s shadow until recently. The 73-year-old has played a pivotal role in forming the couple’s interests and alliances in the US, where she is a naturalized citizen, and in her native Israel, according to public records and interviews with people who know her socially and professionally. Evidence suggests that she is the driver in the couple’s political and philanthropic activities, whether pushing for the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv or donating an unprecedented $113m to this year’s midterm elections

Meet Dr Miriam Adelson: the record-breaking Republican donor driving Trump's Israel policy | US news | The Guardian

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A few weeks after President Donald Trump moved into the White House, he received a memo from one of his biggest campaign donors: Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, America’s largest private coal company. Emblazoned with the words “Action Plan,” it was essentially a wish list of all the environmental regulations Murray wanted Trump to get rid of. Nearly two years later, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is on track to fulfill almost all of Murray’s requests. And the Senate is on the cusp of allowing one of Murray’s most trusted former lobbyists to lead the effort.

A Coal Baron’s Takeover of the EPA Is Nearly Complete | The New Republic

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President Trump is fundraising off his national prime-time address Tuesday focused on the border amid the ongoing partial government shutdown. Trump in an email Tuesday afternoon asked supporters to donate to his "Official Secure the Border Fund" through the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Trump fundraises off prime-time address | TheHill

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President Trump is picking David Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, to be the Interior Department’s next secretary. “I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior,” Trump tweeted Monday. Bernhardt, whose past clients include oil companies and others with business before the Interior Department, will lead an agency that oversees about 500 million acres as well as the energy production on that land.

Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary | TheHill

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The Trump administration has drawn flak for putting former lobbyists for big companies or heavyweight industries into key government jobs. It’s hardly a new practice. The chart above, based on data from OpenSecrets.org, shows how the current administration ranks vs. other presidencies in its links to lobbyists. It gives the number of individuals in each administration who worked in what OpenSecrets.org calls “the influence industry” either before or after their government service. That means it covers registered and unregistered lobbyists. The George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, which both lasted eight years, take the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, when it comes to sheer number of staffers with ties to lobbying. Compared to “Bush 43,” Trump’s time in office is just 25% as long (two years vs. eight), but the current president’s “revolvers” total from OpenSecrets.org is already 32% of Bush’s tally (326 vs. 1,029).

How the Trump presidency ranks against prior administrations in links to lobbyists — in one chart - MarketWatch

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In late June 2017, Texas political mega-donor Doug Deason had a stern message for Republicans seeking  campaign donations: The “Dallas piggy bank” was closed until they repealed Obamacare and passed major tax cuts. Deason said he had urged about two dozen of his wealthy Texas friends to do the same. The billionaire Koch brothers Charles and David also hinted at withholding money. Just weeks later, the GOP effort to repeal Obamacare collapsed. Tax reform, which one Republican senator said would make repealing Obamacare look like a piece of cake, ominously loomed as the next item on the GOP agenda, and time was running out. Panic set in. By November, as Congress struggled to push a massive tax cut bill forward, Rep. Chris Collins from New York summed up the stakes: “My donors are basically saying: ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.'” 

From the looks of it, GOP politicians got what they wanted, too. From the time the tax bill was first introduced on Nov. 2, 2017, until the end of the year, a 60-day period, dozens of billionaires and millionaires dramatically boosted their political contributions unlike they had in past years, giving a total of $31.1 million in that two months, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics found. The Center’s analysis found that 144 wealthy donors, some household names and some behind-the-scenes, contributed at least $50,000 to Republicans and conservative groups in that time frame. For 87 of those, three out of five, the surge of giving at year’s end reflected a marked change in their giving behavior.

Billionaires Flooded Republicans’ Coffers Just Before the Tax Cuts Passed – Mother Jones

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A government ethics group is accusing six political officials at the Interior Department of violating the Trump administration’s ethics pledge. The Campaign Legal Center sent a formal complaint to Interior’s Office of Inspector General, asking it to investigate those officials’ compliance with provisions of the pledge all political appointees sign, including cooling-off periods for working on matters involving former employers, restrictions on meeting with former employers or clients, and restrictions on dealing with matters for which an employee used to lobby. “Several political appointees at Interior appear to have violated these provisions, which are specifically designed to prevent public officials from using their positions to favor former employers or lobbying clients,” the group wrote.

Interior officials accused of violating ethics pledge | TheHill

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What qualifies someone to be ambassador to the UN?

President Trump has just announced his latest nominee to become Ambassador to the United Nations, after his earlier nominee, who would have replaced Nikki Haley, was forced to withdraw her nomination after illegally hiring as a nanny an immigrant unauthorized to work in the U.S. “I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump announced via tweet. No formal White House announcement has been made yet. “Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!” Trump neglected to mention that Knight Craft is Trump’s current Ambassador to Canada, so he’s just shuffling the players around again.

Knight Craft is perhaps best known for her science-denying remarks, saying she believes in “both sides” of climate change. (There are not two sides.) Meanwhile, the President also neglected to mention Knight Craft, along with her billionaire coal baron husband, donated millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign. Ambassador to the United Nations is not the same as Ambassador to Canada. There are few national security issues America’s Ambassador to Canada would be relied upon to keep Americans safe. But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations holds a key national security role. They sit on the UN Security Council and represent the U.S. to the rest of the world. There is no indication Knight Craft is qualified for the role. Knight Craft does hail from Kentucky, where she has also been a major GOP donor, or, as one Canadian news publication described it, “Knight Craft is well known among Republicans, to whom she has donated piles of money.”

Meet the new UN ambassador nominee – a billionaire GOP donor and science denier who gave Trump millions – Alternet.org

Drain the swamp, right?

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Here’s a new scandal for Donald Trump: The president personally encouraged the Qatari government to finance a nuclear power plant project pursued by a top Trump donor. And shortly after Trump’s intervention, this big-money donor, Franklin Haney, a Memphis-based real estate developer who contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, hired Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime personal lawyer, to help land this Qatari investment. This wheeling and dealing was occurring as the Gulf nation was eagerly seeking to gain influence with Trump. It’s a tale of how the Trump swamp works: Trump’s personal and political connections overlap with private business interests that are linked to foreign policy matters. This episode, described by Haney this week to a local newspaper, places Trump in the midst of a highly controversial deal and suggests that Trump used his power to benefit the private business venture of a major donor

A Swamp Story: Trump Encouraged a Foreign Official to Back a Donor’s Business Deal – Mother Jones