There have been numerous mainstream media reports on how President Trump who based his 2016 campaign on a promise to “drain the swamp” has turned around and packed his administration with former lobbyists now making decisions that favor the industries they once lobbied for–essentially created a “TrumpSwamp”.

Among those former industry lobbyists now in the Trump administration is Defense Secretary Mark Esper who was a former lobbyist for weapons manufacturer Raytheon–a glaring conflict of interest. Defense Sec Esper’s conflict of interest has become more pronounced, and attracted the attention of ethics watchdog group CREW after the recent military strike on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on Jan 3, 2020 that drove Raytheon stock prices to record highs.

Mark Esper used to be the top lobbyist for weapons manufacturer Raytheon.



He's now Secretary of Defense and pushed the targeted killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.



The day after the killing, Raytheon's stock hit an all-time high. https://t.co/oHKoGRMbO2 — Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 20, 2020

Sec Esper and Secretary of State Pompeo are known to have pressured Trump to go with the military strike, even though top military officials did not recommend it. Was Sec Esper looking out for his old boss Raytheon? Hmm

Another issue that has caught ethics watchdog CREW’s attention is the fact that during his confirmation hearings, Sec Esper refused to recuse himself from all issues related to Raytheon while he was defense secretary and also refused to rule out returning to work for the weapons manufacturer after leaving the Trump administration. CREW’s concerns about Sec Esper and Raytheon are therefore quite valid.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is already raising questions as to whether Trump’s Maralago friends(typically lobbyists), profited from an advance notice on the Soleimani strike–essentially insider trading.

Bottom line folks, as Yours Truly has repeatedly stated before, the brazen corruption of the Trump administration is not normal and the only way we can prevent him and his cronies from normalizing it is if we scream about it. Where, as here, Defense Sec Esper’s actions raise serious conflict of interest questions regarding weapons manufacturer Raytheon, then the mainstream media and congressional Democrats have a duty to confront Esper about it.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com