The Revolving Door Project, a Prospect partner, scrutinizes the executive branch and presidential power. Follow them at therevolvingdoorproject.org.
The Ringer’s Press Box podcast regularly features something they call the “Media Piss Test.” The joke is that it has become a political cliché to say something new is like something old, but “on steroids.”
It might be a cliché to describe the corruption saturating the Trump administration as steroidal, but it is simply true that every tool of corruption in our politics, from self-dealing to gerrymandering to outright bribery, has become vastly stronger under Donald Trump. (It also bears mentioning that some figures in the administration display the telltale signs of hitting the gear.)
So perhaps it suffices to say that in 2025, the revolving door between the federal government and the corporations that encircle it has been “Trump-sized.” Even before his inauguration, it was glaringly obvious that the influence industry would have enormous sway in Trump’s Washington. While loyalty and obsequiousness are defining characteristics of multiple White House staff, corporate lobbying experience seems to be valued just as highly.
Even Politico is being direct about the president’s embrace of the swamp, noting that “Trump has abandoned any pretense of cleaning up the age-old ways of Washington,” and that a rash of spins through the revolving door “illustrate the ways in which his administration continues to push the bounds of ethics norms and guardrails designed to prevent government officials from profiting off their time in public service.”
Politico’s reporting further reveals the individuals who are already exploiting this erosion of ethics guardrails, swinging from federal government work to influence-peddling in this boom time for Washington’s quintessential venal operatives.
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Republican lobbying firm CGCN Group announced its hiring of White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields last Wednesday. His colleague Trent Morse is set to wrap up his stint in government this week before moving on to his newly founded Morse Strategies. Morse will also advise K Street behemoth Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. Fields and Morse are joined by May Davis Mailman, a former strategist who shaped Trump’s intimidation of universities, and former crypto adviser Bo Hines, who’s decamped to Tether.
If this year’s quarterly lobbying disclosure reports are anything to go by, this is an opportune time to have an office on K Street, especially for shops with close ties to the president and his advisers. Take Ballard Partners, for example, whose clients include administration darlings Palantir and TikTok, as well as the insurance giant UnitedHealth and crypto company Ripple Labs. The firm, which once employed Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, reportedly brought in an eye-popping $20.6 million in lobbying revenue during this year’s second quarter. That’s over four times higher than its haul in the second quarter of 2024.
Miller Strategies, another aligned shop, saw a similar fourfold revenue increase, bringing in $13 million for representing Zoom, OpenAI, Apple, SoftBank, and Blackstone during the second quarter. And of course, registered lobbying accounts for a mere fraction of the activities that a reasonable observer would deem “lobbying.”
Not included in these record-setting revenue reports is the work Trump-connected firms are performing on behalf of foreign governments, particularly some of the least-developed countries reeling from aid cuts. Global Witness found that 17 of these countries are now relying on these Trump insiders to facilitate deals where they would offer “access to valuable natural resources, including minerals or other strategic assets, in exchange for humanitarian or military support.”
Even before his inauguration, it was glaringly obvious that the influence industry would have enormous sway in Trump’s Washington.
Why does this matter? Well, there’s an obvious civic virtue problem. When a system allows people to serve in government barely long enough to understand the entity they are set to destroy, and just as they get their sea legs under them, they move to cash out, it signals to the public that corruption is the mode of operation in Washington. But civic virtue is about more than personal morality—we’re more concerned about corruption that enables corporations to endanger people for profit with zero accountability. And the revolving door makes that likely, not just under Trump, but especially under Trump.
People who revolve out of the Trump government know more about the government than even experts on the outside. Wiles acknowledges as much in her endorsement of Morse’s ability to provide “guidance and counsel” to those seeking to understand Trumpworld. Her comments read as an overt encouragement to White House staff to go play in the muck, selling their knowledge to the highest bidder.
Indeed, knowledge from the inside can be esoteric and powerful. That’s true under all presidents (which is why we at Revolving Door Project opposed it under Biden as well as under Trump). But under Trump, the federal government is evolving (frankly, “devolving” or “disintegrating” might be better word choices, alas) more rapidly than at any time since at least World War II. DOGE—under both Elon Musk and Russell Vought—and the crew that wrote Project 2025 are enemies of the government as it has existed, and they are hacking away at it energetically. With Musk in particular, it’s as if the revolving door spun so fast it collapsed into a singularity—the richest man on Earth outright controlling (or destroying) large chunks of the government himself, all while his companies collected large federal contracts.
The Trump administration is also hiding information on the structure and operations of the government wreckers, pushing back against efforts by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and others to compel transparency. So what is a normal lobbyist to do? Who to call when the normal organizational charts no longer reflect reality?
Well, consulting with a lobbyist who helped build the Project 2025 monster that is Trump’s government from the inside will get you much better insight into how policy is made and … unmade.
The boost to corporations goes double when new hires retain close personal relationships between current and recently departed members of the Trump team. Trump’s team typically welcomes corporate input, but there is only so much time in a day and so many texts to answer, especially if you’re also required to be a right-wing influencer and/or follow them closely across social media. Your buddy from the administration is much likelier to get a response on Signal than a normal Republican lobbyist from a traditional Washington lobbying shop.
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks merger episode is instructive here. After interference by MAGA consultants Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz, the Department of Justice dropped its lawsuit blocking the $14 billion merger that would greatly limit competition in the wireless network space. Davis and Schwartz each received $1 million for their efforts convincing DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle to overrule the department’s antitrust chief Gail Slater. This use of off-the-book consultants who are not subject to disclosure requirements creates another pathway for self-enrichment for MAGA-world folks. Other firms will likely follow suit, showering people like Davis with cash to help secure preferential regulatory outcomes.
Laura Loomer is another example. The MAGA influencer’s curious ability to make policy by tweet suggests a direct line to the Oval Office. Now, while it’s not clear who her corporate backers are, there have been obvious beneficiaries of her interventions, which have resulted in sanctions carve-outs for Chevron in Venezuela and a stock value boost for natural gas company New Fortress.
There’s another layer to the influence-peddling game. Administration figures who are not yet ready to jump ship to K Street can still establish rapport with potential future employers while in the federal government. In this case, the individuals hoping for a similar payday to their recently departed colleagues will remain readily accessible to their recent colleagues and other interested players in the corporate lobbying world, as favors exchanged now can become lucrative in the not-too-distant future.
There will inevitably be many more swings of the revolving door over the course of the Trump administration. And with the administration set to continue subordinating the rule of law, the political intelligence departed figures are able to provide will be of great value. While this intelligence may allow corporations to acquire more profit, everyday people will be left worse off by normalized exploitation and corruption of our federal government.