Donald Trump is not draining the swamp, despite his promises. He simply puts his own brand on it, like everything he touches and sells. And it transports him: Wherever Trump is, swamp creatures swarm to be near him.
Since he won the Nov. 5 election, the parasites' habitat has been Mar-a-Lago, Trump's oceanfront playground in Palm Beach, Florida, a state famous for being hospitable to swamps. Sycophants, billionaires, lobbyists and job seekers jostle amid the gaudy, non-swampy golden splendor, wearing golf suits by day and formal wear by night, hoping for a chance to present their special interests to the King of the Swamp.
opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical look to the national political scene. He has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
The post-election headlines tell it. “Inside the Trump-driven lobbying frenzy from Mar-a-Lago” read onefollowed by: “K Street lobbyists are flocking to Florida, as the nexus of power under Donald Trump shifts from Washington to Palm Beach.” Other: “An increase in demand and fees for Trump-linked lobbyists.” And from the bbc: “The power in the palm trees: inside the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.”
Never in memory, possibly ever, has the nation seen such an open, remorseless and public demonstrations of reverence and treatment of an American president or president-elect by the nation's wealthy and well-connected. Get used to it. trump favorite historical period It is the Gilded Age of the late 19th century; is recreating it for the 21st century.
Another recent article on the Trump transition, titled “Dinner at Mar-a-Lago is for power plays,” noted that when Trump enters the patio dining room each night, the assembled guests give him a standing ovation. At a central table, surrounded by rope to keep lesser beings at bay, the president-elect serves as a DJ and queues up songs on his iPad, including David Bowie's “Space Oddity” when the world's richest man , electric vehicle innovator, rocket entrepreneur and ubiquitous “First Friend,” Elon Musk, arrives to join Trump in the center ring.
Trump “sits with everyone,” a wealthy Pennsylvania resident who is a member of Mar-a-Lago ($1 million up front, $20,000 a year) said the Washington Post. “It's a more sophisticated swamp, but it's crazy,” said another regular. “You go to the club and you meet all these creatures.” A third member, however, complained that nowadays there are so many supplicants that sometimes he cannot get a table.
But on Thursday night the waters opened for Trump's special guest, the second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, the aerospace company Blue Origin (Musk's competitor) and the Washington Post, all companies who could be benefited or harmed by actions of the Trump administration. Bezos is among the technology CEOs whose companies have donated $1 million for Trump's inauguration festivities, having never done so at previous inaugurations. Also at the center table of the stage, naturally, was Bezos' nemesis, Musk.
In addition to Trump himself (with his cryptocurrency business, majority stake in social network Truth Social, real estate holdings, books, licensing deals, stock holdings in multiple industries, and new MAGA-branded products every day), Musk may be the person with the most to gain from the next administration, and the most real and apparent conflicts of interest in mixing business and government work. Musk has already made a considerable return on his $250 million investment in getting Trump elected, a staggering figure but one that represents just 0.05% of his fortune, which Bloomberg Billionaire index figure at almost half a trillion dollars, 474 billion dollars.
Musk hasn't had to wait for Trump to take office to benefit. Flaunting his clout as co-director of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which isn't really a department, along with Vivek Ramaswamy (another billionaire, barely, according to Forbes), Musk ended a bipartisan year-end spending package last week with a barrage of more than 150 social media attacks against X, getting ahead of Trump. And down with the bill went his provisions to restrict investments in China could have limited those that Musk pursues.
Just a few days earlier, on Monday, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, had written Trump calling for safeguards against Musk's conflicts of interest as he exercises Trump's mandate to recommend ways to cut both federal spending and regulations. For someone like Musk, with billions in federal contracts, proceeding without guardrails, Warren said, was “an invitation to corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes.”
That phrase could apply to the entire culture Trump is building around himself for his second term. For years in Washington, the influence–Street vending almost to the point of bribery has been legalized, largely thanks to a series of Supreme Court decisions making processing more difficult and facilitating the delivery of money. Both parties are making the most of the lax environment, but none more brazenly than Trump.
Suffice it to say that in the Trump swamp, Warren's proposal to guard against Musk's personal aggrandizement was not taken seriously. After all, the boss himself is resist federal ethical restrictions that united other modern presidents; his team belatedly introduced a code of ethics as required by the Presidential Transition Act, but did not apply the requirements to Trump, according to the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. Team Trump's dismissive response to Warren came from Trump's transition spokeswoman, who denigrated the senator as “Pocahontas,” echoing Trump's schoolyard taunt.
The president-elect's own view of Musk's self-employment potential was no more reassuring when Time raised the issue in its interview after the magazine named him “Person of the Year.”
One of the interviewers, noting that Musk will oversee the federal agencies that regulate his companies, which include SpaceX, Tesla, X, Starlink, brain implant company Neuralink and more, asked, “Isn't that a conflict of interest?” Trump: “I don't think so.” The interlocutor went on to point out that Musk has been talking about cuts to NASA and that SpaceX is a competitor. “Isn't that the textbook definition of conflict of interest?”
Trump deflected: “He puts the country before… his company.”
As Trump likes to say: “We'll see.”
@jackiekcalmes
