Trump Transition Work Set To Pick Up Speed

The president-elect was criticized for including lobbyists on the transition team after running on a vow to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

The president-elect’s first decision, to establish Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon as “equal partners” in the White House, sent mixed signals about his priorities.

In the end, said Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, the Trump plan may only perpetuate the problem of un-lobbyists. “We’re going to phase that out”.

Last month, Trump proposed changes to lobbying ethics rules that would make it much harder for government and elected officials to become lobbyists after leaving office by extending the current “cooling off period” – the time period that lawmakers and administration officials must wait before lobbying their former colleagues – from one or two years to five years.

It is unclear what will happen what will happen to President Obama’s executive order on lobbying, which placed limits on who could come into the administration.

Donald Trump has banned lobbyists from his government, requiring that all officials under consideration must sever all ties with lobbying firms.

“The candidate who ran as the outsider populist has populated his transition team with a rogues’ gallery of insiders – corporate lawyers, lobbyists, wonks from corporate-funded think tanks and corporate executives”, said Public Citizen president Robert Weissman.

Having been elected without any prior government experience, Trump’s conversations unsurprisingly are bucking traditional diplomatic protocol The Times of London reported on a leaked transcript of Trump’s call with British Prime Minister Theresa May, where Trump reportedly offered her the most casual of invitations to meet with him: “If you travel to the USA, you should let me know”.

A Republican lobbyist, who asked not to be named, added: “The influence industry didn’t shrink” following Obama’s proposals. It just went largely underground.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has put President-elect Donald Trump on notice about his transition team.

The Wall Street Journal reported vice president-elect Mike Pence, who formally took the reins of the transition team Sunday, has ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the operation.

Lobbyist and former Rep. Pete Hoekstra of MI is replacing Rogers, The Hill reports.

This did not necessarily lead to less lobbying, but it did lead to over 5,000 lobbyists de-registering in 2008 and 2009.

There are a few reasons why presidents before Trump have tried and failed to unseat the governing and political class. It is this revolving door that has kept the permanent government in business for more than a century.

Pence fired the team New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had built when he was transition director and replaced it with one that “makes good” on Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp”, the Daily Mail reports.

The turbulent, unpredictable start to Trump’s administration-in-waiting signals how he and his team might operate once in the White House – and suggests his presidency could be marked by dysfunction, at least early on.

The pace of appointments is just one consideration, of course. Aides to Trump said several of the firings in recent days were part of an effort to enforce the new rules, although the aides declined to reveal any names.

And yet, despite all of this, Trump is now relying on Washington insiders to clean up the mess they created. “Finding that balance is going to be hard for them”.