Trump’s Lobbyist Buddies Cash In
Several advisers to the President-elect have been padding their lobbying client rosters since the election.
Some of Trump's close advisers have been cashing in since the election by signing lucrative lobbying contracts with new clients for whom they will work to influence the administration or other parts of the government.
Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser for Trump's 2024 campaign and communications director for Trump's transition team in his first administration, has registered to lobby for seven new clients since the election, more than doubling the number of clients he reported lobbying for in the most recent quarter. His new corporate clients since the election are the U.S. Cannabis Council, Venture Global LNG, HP Inc., surveillance technology company FlockSafety, and the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group for hundreds of tech companies including giants like Apple and Google.
Since the election, Lanza has also registered as a foreign agent for the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea and Stand for Ukraine, according to documents filed with the Department of Justice. For South Korea, Lanza's services will include helping to "identify strategic opportunities for relationship development with Trump transition officials" and "introduc[ing] embassy leaders to key stakeholders on the Trump transition team that may hold positions in the administration." For Stand with Ukraine, a Canadian organization, Lanza will help "position [the client] with policymakers, government officials, and others as a thought leader and resource related to Ukraine."
Lanza is a partner at lobbying and public affairs firm Mercury Public Affairs, a major lobbying firm where Trump's incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was a co-chair until last month.
Trump campaign bundler Brain Ballard, who reportedly raised $50 million for the incoming president, has signed up eight new lobbying clients since the election. For the Toy Association, which represents companies like Mattel and Hasbro, Ballard will be providing "guidance and advocacy related to tariffs." He also recently signed up to provide "Advice and guidance related to supply chains and trade tariff" for pharmaceutical manufacturer Apotex Corp.
Ballard's other new post-election federal lobbying clients include Ripple Labs, AECOM, the City of North Miami Beach, Compass Connections, the Safe Pro Group (an A.I.-powered drone company), and Roberto Perez, an individual who he is representing on immigration issues.
Hunter Morgen, who was a special assistant to the President and senior advisor for policy and strategy during the first Trump administration, as well as a principal deputy to aides Peter Navarro and Stephen Miller, is also on the Apotex and Toy Associations contracts.
Ballard's firm, Ballard Partners, formerly employed Wiles for nearly a decade until she left for Mercury in 2019. It also recently employed Trump's attorney general pick Pam Bondi.
The former Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the first Trump administration, Carlos Trujillo, has signed up to lobby for five new clients since the election. Trujillo was a senior advisor for the Trump 2024 campaign on Latino issues, helping to deliver him votes from a key demographic for his electoral victory.
With his firm Continental Strategy, Trujillo since November 5 has registered to lobby for the Recording Industry Association of America, Arizona State University, Google Cloud, prison company GEO Group, offshore wind energy developer US Wind, tech and defense conference Emerge Americas, and Haitian conglomerate the GB Group S.A.
The day after Trump named Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, Continental Strategy gave her daughter Katie Wiles a promotion to serve as a director in its Jacksonville and Washington, D.C. offices.
While the Trump and Harris presidential campaigns did not release their lists of bundlers, several Trump bundlers were made public because they are registered lobbyists. They included Jeff Miller, founder and CEO of lobbying and government relations firm Miller Strategies, who was previously dubbed "one of the most powerful people in the nation's capital" for his close relations with former House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
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