Donald Trump’s former campaign manager who spoke of draining the swamp defends his decision to open a lobbying firm. ‘That’s what we call America’

Donald Trump’s ex–campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has said it is “absolutely disgusting” to question whether his decision to open a political lobbying firm in Washington DC undermines the president’s pledge to stamp out influence-peddling.

Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager and one of his earliest and closest advisers, helped shape the president’s populist promise to tackle a corrupt political elite beholden to monied interests in Washington.

But as Trump begins the first week of his presidency determined to present his administration as a clean break with the past, Lewandowski and several former campaign advisers are poised to exploit their lucrative connections with his White House.

In an interview with the Guardian’s Anywhere But Washington series, Lewandowski conceded that Trump’s anti-establishment promise to “drain the swamp” was key to his victory in November. “People come to Washington to get rich through knowledge or informational power, that’s how the American people see it,” he said.



But the controversial political operative bristled when it was pointed out he was doing the very thing he campaigned against. “I think if companies have to do business with the federal government, their choice is to hire people who understand the federal bureaucracy,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that: that’s what we call America.”

Lewandowski’s new company, Avenue Strategies, was founded weeks after Trump’s election. Speaking from his Pennsylvania Avenue office, which has views of the White House, Lewandowski said it would be representing “small business owners and large business owners”. “What I hope I can bring, if I’m fortunate enough to work for some of those companies, is to say: ‘I can’t guarantee you an answer of a yes or a no from the government, but I can help get you an answer quickly.’”

He insisted he should not be portrayed as “cashing in, which is absolutely factually incorrect”. The claim that he “got into this business so I could make money”, Lewandowski added, “is absolutely disgusting”.

In his inauguration speech on Friday, Trump reiterated his promise to clean house in Washington. “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” the president said on the steps of the Capitol building, moments after being sworn in. “We are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people.”

However, the president’s decision to give his son-in-law Jared Kushner a senior White House role, and appoint an array of billionaires to key cabinet roles, has already seen the nascent administration face criticisms of nepotism and put it at risk of multiple conflicts of interest.

Meanwhile, Trump’s failure to divest his own sprawling business interests has drawn a stinging rebuke from Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who earlier this month warned that Trump was failing to meet the ethical standards “that every president in the past four decades has met”.

Asked about the censure from the official government ethics chief, Lewandowski denied the condemnation had even occurred. “The president wasn’t condemned by the government ethics chief,” he said, incorrectly.

Trump’s plan to limit the influence of K Street – the stretch of downtown Washington where many lobbyists are based – has been commended by some transparency groups. It includes a requirement that lobbyists de-register before joining his administration and a five-year ban on officials working as lobbyists after they leave his administration, although it is unclear how or even if it will be enforced.

On the surface, the move, announced shortly after the election, appeared to be an effort to fulfil the expectations of a campaign in which Lewandowski said that if Trump were elected, “the days of backroom deals” would end. “This is the fundamental problem with the ruling class in Washington DC – the party bosses, the K Street crowd, the lobbyists who control all these politicians,” he said in a radio interview last year with Steve Bannon, who has now joined the administration as a senior White House adviser. “They will do anything to maintain their power.”

However, in the months since his election, the gap between Trump’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric and the realities of his transition has widened. His transition team has been packed with former lobbyists, while the five-year ban appeared to prompt several campaign officials to bypass roles in the administration in exchange for lucrative K Street jobs.

They include Stuart Jolly, the Trump campaign’s national field director who is now working for the secretive Sonoran Policy Group, and James Murphy, who was Trump’s national political director and has since joined the lobbying firm Baker and Hostetler.



Another ex-Trump campaign operative turned influence-peddler is Barry Bennett, who co-founded Avenue Strategies with Lewandowski. While Bennett has indicated he may formally register as a lobbyist, Lewandowski said he would avoid the formal designation and work instead as a “political consultant”. “They’re two different things,” he claimed.

Political consultants can avoid legal restrictions imposed on lobbying. However, one of Trump’s official campaign policies was to “close all the loopholes” that allow officials to call themselves consultants or advisers “when we all know they are lobbyists”.

Bennett did not mince his words when describing the purpose of the business he has started with Lewandowski. “We’re not here to compete with guys who are lobbying Capitol Hill,” he told Bloomberg last week. “We’re here to lobby the administration.”

Lewandowski is not new to lobbying. According to his LinkedIn page, he has spent much of his career passing through the revolving door between public service and the private sector. It included a seven-year career at Schwarz MSL, a public affairs company where Lewandowski was a registered lobbyist.

However, in his interview with the Guardian he was adamant that he never intended to exploit his links to the Trump administration for monetary gain. “If you thought I got into this two years ago so that I could make a lot of money, then you have no idea what my core value is,” he said.

“You want to accuse me and make disparaging comments about me and my family, that’s where I draw the line,” he added, although nothing had been said in the interview with respect to his family. “If you want to make gross accusations about the president of the United States and saying he’s going to be influenced by money, that’s where I draw the line.”