President Trump’s Drain The Swamp Report Card Prepared by the Offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse July 2017 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 INTRODUCTION ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 3 BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY ������������������������������������������������������ 4 FINDINGS ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 1� President Trump picked dozens of former lobbyists to advise his Transition and staff his Administration� ������������������������������������5 2� President Trump has filled his Administration with dozens of corporate insiders� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������6 3. President Trump has undermined key ethics rules� ����������������������������������������7 4. President Trump’s Administration of lobbyists and corporate insiders has developed and enacted policies that harm ordinary Americans� ���������������9 CONCLUSION ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������12 ENDNOTES ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������13 APPENDICES ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22 President Trump’s Drain the Swamp Report Card Prepared by the Offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Americans are fed up with special interest lobbyists Examples include: and industry insiders controlling the levers of power in y A former energy lobbyist for Dow Chemical Washington, D.C., and rigging the system against the and the Southern Company, who led the Trump interests of ordinary Americans. During his campaign, Transition’s Department of Energy and Nuclear President Trump criticized entrenched special interests Regulatory Commission teams; that have “rigged our political and economic system for their exclusive benefit” and swore that he would “not be y A former financial services lobbyist for MetLife controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists and American Express, who now advises who have corrupted our politics and politicians for far President Trump as the Special Assistant for too long.” Financial Policy at the National Economic Council; and On the campaign trail, President Trump repeatedly y A former transportation lobbyist, who now promised to “drain the swamp,” but he has betrayed works as Chief of Staff at the Department of this promise. This “Drain the Swamp Report Card” Transportation. contains an extensive review of how, in his first six months, President Trump handed his administration 2� President Trump has also relied on dozens over to corporate insiders and Beltway lobbyists. It of industry insiders to run his Transition and catalogues in detail the presence of these “Swamp his Administration. President Trump has put Creatures” in the Trump Administration and the dozens of Wall Street executives and D.C.-based impact they have had on President Trump’s policies and corporate consultants and industry insiders in on the American public. important government positions since taking President Trump gets a failing grade on this first office. This report highlights 37 of these swamp- Drain the Swamp Report Card� He has undermined dwellers who either advised the President important ethics rules, filling his Transition Team during the Transition Period or were hired by and Administration with over 190 former lobbyists, or nominated by President Trump to staff his special interests, and corporate insiders� He has administration. The former President of Goldman broken his promises and rigged his administration Sachs, for example, runs the President’s National to let the special interests run rampant� Trump’s Economic Council, while a “paid consultant for Swamp Creatures have been great for powerful Verizon” advised his Transition Team on Federal corporations, but the rest of America is paying Communications Commission issues. the price� President Trump has not drained the swamp—he has let the Swamp Creatures take over� 3� President Trump’s ethics order and other actions weakened the rules and failed to protect Detailed findings of the analysis include: the American public from Swamp Creatures. President Trump signed an executive order on 1� President Trump filled his Transition Team and January 28, 2017, that the Trump Administration Administration with lobbyists, allowing special claimed was supposed to slow the revolving door interests to dictate and shape his Administration. between government and the private sector. Over the course of his Transition and the first six Unfortunately, this executive order lacked key months of his Administration, President Trump protections against lobbyists that had been was advised by, or has hired, at least 160 current included in a similar order issued by President and former lobbyists. Fifty-seven of these lobbyists Obama. The omission allowed President Trump served on his Transition Team, 79 currently work to fill his Administration with a slew of lobbyists for or worked for the Trump Administration, and and corporate special interests. And the President 24 worked for both the Trump Transition Team has continued to undermine ethics rules and and the Administration. break his own promises, allowing corporate President Trump’s Drain the Swamp Report Card Prepared by the Offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse 1 lobbyists, consultants, and special interests to special interests. These include: invade Washington at the expense of the American y The White House abandoned seniors and people. families, instead giving in to the demands of big pharmaceutical companies after hiring a 4� President Trump’s broken promise to “drain the former pharmaceutical lobbyist to lead President swamp” has been great for corporate America, Trump’s Drug Pricing Working Group. but has hurt ordinary Americans. The problems created by a government run by special interests y The Department of Labor put efforts to protect are real. When key decision-makers at the highest construction workers from toxic substances on levels of governments have conflicts of interest and hold after receiving advice from a construction long-standing ties to corporate America, it is no industry lobbyist during the transition. surprise that the policies they create are designed y The Education Department delayed important to benefit those corporations and special interests rules protecting students from predatory - leaving the American people behind. President institutions after hiring former lobbyists from Trump’s Administration has already adopted or the for-profit college industry. supported multiple policies that leave workers and middle class families out in the cold while aiding President Trump’s Drain the Swamp Report Card Prepared by the Offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse 2 INTRODUCTION Throughout his campaign and after he took members of his Transition Team that included a office, President Trump promised the American restriction on lobbyists. The code of conduct required people that he would “drain the swamp” of D.C. registered lobbyists on the Transition Team “to lobbyists, special interest groups, and corporate terminate their formal registration to lobby.” The insiders. Team also announced a six-month lobbying ban for Transition Team members, who were required to During his campaign, President Trump attacked the sign agreements stating that they would not engage in special interests that have “rigged our political and lobbying activities for six months after they served on 1 economic system for their exclusive benefit,” claiming the Transition.8 he would work “only…for the people of the U.S.”2 He told the American people that he would “not be On January 28, 2017, just days after taking office, controlled by the donors, special interests and lobbyists President Trump issued Executive Order 13770, Ethics who have corrupted our politics and politicians for Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees. The far too long.”3 Time and time again, Donald Trump Executive Order includes an Ethics Pledge that “every promised to “drain the swamp.”4 appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2017” must comply with. The Pledge 9 1� President Trump bragged that “no lobbyists” includes: would work for his Administration, promising y A Five-Year Ban on Lobbying After Serving a “five-year lobbying ban on White House in Government: Appointees must agree to officials” and a “lifetime ban on lobbying” foreign “not, within 5-years after the termination of my governments. employment as an appointee in any executive On the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump agency…engage in lobbying activities with was critical of lobbyists’ influence in Washington. In respect to that agency.” June 2016, Trump announced that he “would have y A Lifetime Ban on Lobbying Foreign no problem with” saying that “no lobbyists will work Governments: Appointees commit to “not, at for [him]” in the White House.5 In October 2016, he any time after the termination of my employment proposed an ambitious “package of ethics reforms” in the United States Government, engage in any designed to “make [the] government honest.” This activity on behalf of any foreign government or ethics reform package included