Corporate Executives Swamp the White House: During Trump’s First 100 Days as President, Tally of Meetings with Outside Corporate Executives Exceeds 200

Public Citizen’s analysis of news reports and White House press releases reveals the astonishing degree to which outside corporate executives have swamped President Donald Trump’s White House.

According to news reports and White House press releases, since his inauguration, President Trump has met with at least 190 corporate executives – averaging more than two a day. Counting repeat attendees, he has had at least 222 corporate executive meetings. These totals do not include his reported frequent telephone conversations with Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman and other CEOs. Nor do they not count administration members and nominees. Since the Nov. 8 election, Trump has met with at least 224 corporate executives since being elected president.

While Trump occasionally has granted an audience with individual executives, the high numbers are due in large part to gatherings of executives at the White House. These extraordinary gatherings, which have the explicit purpose of providing a way for Big Business to shape the administration’s policies, are supplemented by the president’s more casual interactions with corporate leaders at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where the membership fee is now $200,000.

Many of the gatherings reflect the administration’s interest in giving special consideration to the views of specific corporate sectors, such as airlines, health insurance corporations, pharmaceutical corporations, the automotive industry, and regional banks. One of every five of the corporate executives who met with the Trump administration within the first 100 days represented the banking or financial sector, a particular focus of Trump’s criticism during the campaign.

During the presidential campaign, candidate Trump proclaimed, “Our campaign is about breaking-up the special interest monopoly in Washington, D.C.”

Among the corporate executives Trump has entertained within the first 100 days include wealthy donors (such as Sheldon Adelson, David Koch, Carl Lindner III) and the heads of large corporations (including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, and Doug McMillon of Wal-Mart).

The revelation comes as the Trump administration has come under fire for policy reversals attributed to corporate influence, and just days after the administration moved to end the public disclosure of White House visitor logs.

Table of President Trump’s meetings with 224 corporate executives: