On Nov. 8, 2016, K Street and its clients were thrown for a loop. "Many companies want to understand: What are the president's priorities?" President Trump's onetime campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told The New York Times Magazine. "But there are so few people in Washington who have a relationship or an understanding of him."
For those that did have insight to offer, though, business boomed. Lewandowski himself had a short-lived stint at a lobbying firm he started with Trump's former aide Barry Bennett. While Lewandowski eventually got into some trouble for boasting a bit too loudly about his nearness to Trump and for failing to register as a lobbyist, he offered The New York Times Magazine a glimpse at the strange new "swamp" that exists with Trump in office:
Many of the Trump-connected lobbyists told me they were turning away as much business as they accepted. One person offered Lewandowski $250,000 just to get the president to tweet about him. A lobbyist who worked on Trump's inaugural committee told me of a billionaire who, within a week of the inauguration, offered a million dollars if the lobbyist could arrange for his picture to be taken in the Oval Office with the new president. "You can make $2 million if you want," Bennett told me, sounding almost apologetic. "It's like: 'I've got a gold mine in Eastern Europe.' Or: 'My client is suing the IRS — can you help?'" [The New York Times Magazine]
Read more about "how to get rich in Trump's Washington" at The New York Times Magazine.
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