Eight years ago, Trump vowed to ‘drain the swamp.’ Now he swims in it.

The Washington Post ^ | October 11, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT | Isaac Stanley-Becker and Josh Dawsey

[E. Pluribus Unum]

When clients tell Mercury Public Affairs, a consulting and lobbying shop with 18 offices worldwide, that they’re concerned about Donald Trump’s possible return to office, the firm has just the person to ease their nerves: Bryan Lanza.

“He gives them assurances that there will be life after Nov. 5,” said one of the colleagues, referring to Election Day.

Lanza declined to comment through a Mercury spokesman. A Trump spokesman did not respond to questions.

Eight years after Trump entered politics promising to reduce the influence of Washington lobbyists — to “drain the swamp,” as he put it — advocates for corporate interests, including companies based in China and other foreign countries denounced by Trump, now sit at virtually every level of his campaign. Lobbyists are represented among high-level staff, informal advisers and party faithful who planned the summer convention in Milwaukee, as people with access to Trump or insight into his at-times erratic decision-making turn that knowledge into moneymaking opportunities.

Trump’s campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is a Mercury partner alongside Lanza — and one of at least five people advising Trump who have advocated for tobacco, vaping or cannabis interests in recent years, according to lobbying disclosures and interviews.

At least two people close to the campaign have advocated for Chinese-owned TikTok. One of them, former Trump White House aide Kellyanne Conway, served not as a registered lobbyist, according to people familiar with the arrangement, but as a consultant for Club for Growth, the conservative group whose biggest donor is invested in TikTok’s parent company. The other, David Urban, is a veteran of Trump’s two previous campaigns and still travels frequently with the former president — and has registered to lobby for the company. He now works for BGR Group, a prominent lobbying firm with foreign clients including India. He...

[BenLurkin]

So what did you at the Post do to help President Trump drain the swamp?

[alstewartfan]

Yawn.

[Responsibility2nd]

The swap cannot be drained. But Trump is smart enough to have learned that it can be reformed. With trusted advisors like Kellyanne Conway and other Trump allies embedded in the DC infrastructure, things can get better.

[SaxxonWoods]

It’s all Swamp. Everyone has to swim in it.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

We stopped him from building the wall.

Why didn’t he build the wall?

We fraudulently convicted him of felonies.

Why would you vote for a convicted felon.

We stopped him from draining the swamp?

Hey evil leftist your slip is showing.

[jdt1138]

OP I hope that you are having fun with us but in the mean time well is on earth just for you.

[Dogbert41]

The only thing that can fix the swamp is the return of The King Jesus. Don’t put any faith in man.

[fwdude]

I’m thinking the swamp needs to be stocked with an invasive species. Deliberate environmental chaos to the “ecosystem.”

[dragnet2]

It was Trump who exposed the massive widespread government corruption in the U.S.

That accomplishment alone is epic and has changed everything.

[DesertRhino]

“At least two people close to the campaign have advocated for Chinese-owned TikTok”

OH MY GOD! We should all care about our country and make sure our data only goes to Zuckerberg, Apple, Amazon and Google.
Wave the flag patriots!

[stanne]

Does the Washington Post believe that there is.a time limit on this draining of the swamp?

Because there is not

If Trump is in any way swimming in the swamp it is only to get things moving away from the America he is striving to make great again

I hear from suburban women gullible toward their leftist children and fake nice wimpy ignorant friends that Trump is involved in the Epstein crap etc

How ignorant. How unimaginative. If he were they would drag him to rikers and get him put out of politics so fast it would curl your hair

There are different standards

People have no clue how evil works

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What does that word salad mean?

[MIA_eccl1212]

Does the Washington Post believe that there is.a time limit on this draining of the swamp?

---

they are praying there is a limit... because they are on the chopping block... of Trumps second term... or third.

perhaps retribution against them, other press outlets and obama and jarrett, hillary and neo cons in general would be in order.

[moreisee]

So says the propaganda arm of the Deep State Swamp.

[BenLurkin]

Exactly.

On the bright side though, maybe it’s progress when the pinkos at the Post admit that The Swamp is a real thing.

[dragnet2]

[Zathras]

Looks like this weekend its MSM open season on Trump.
The polls that say he is leading must be correct.

[vivenne]

So, WP, you are admitting there is a swamp???

[stanne]

It is not retribution.

At all

Trump spends his work time thinking and acting. He doesn’t get hung up on anger or revenge

Anyone who has acted against the constitution, unlawful, damaging who and has been a danger or is a danger is in the category of being placed out of power of doing so in the future

That’s all

They won’t like it and they’ll screen and accuse - falsely. Ok