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New Report from Senators Warren and Whitehouse: Six Month-Review Gives President Trump A Failing Grade on Pledge to "Drain the Swamp"
Trump Has Hired 193 Former Lobbyists and Corporate Insiders
WASHINGTON
As President Trump marks his first six months in office, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today released their "Drain the Swamp Report Card" tracking 193 former lobbyists and corporate insiders who have worked for President Trump since his election, giving the president a failing grade on his pledge to "drain the swamp."
Despite signing an Executive Order promising to slow the revolving door between government and the private sector, President Trump has brought on an average of more than one swamp-creature for every day he has been in office. Over the course of his transition and during the first six months of his administration, President Trump has appointed or nominated at least 160 current and former lobbyists, including 81 individuals who were registered as lobbyists within the past two years. In addition, President Trump has relied on the advice and service of at least 37 industry insiders, including Wall Street executives and DC-based corporate consultants.
"President Trump reneged on his promise to 'drain the swamp.' Instead of turning away lobbyists and Washington insiders, he has welcomed them into the White House with open arms," said Senator Warren. "Personnel is policy, and President Trump's army of lobbyists are more interested in lining the pockets of their long-time employers and corporate buddies than in making life better for America's working families."
"We all heard the 'drain the swamp' chants at Trump rallies. Now the Trump administration is knee-deep in special interest lobbyists and industry insiders who spent their careers trying to bring special interest influence into the agencies they now lead - or simply tear the agencies down," said Senator Whitehouse. "We need an open and transparent government that fights for the health, safety, and wellbeing of the American people. Instead, we've got a government filling with swamp creatures out to rig the system for themselves and their patrons."
The report describes the breadth and depth of corporate influence on the Trump Administration, finding numerous examples of President Trump's appointees are designing policies specifically that benefit special interests. The report includes detailed descriptions of White House policies crafted by Washington lobbyists and insiders that help pharmaceutical companies, for-profit colleges, big banks, and the oil and gas industry -- all at the expense of the American people.
The "Drain the Swamp Report Card" follows a letter from Senator Warren to President Trump shortly after his election, raising concerns about the special interest lobbyists and industry insiders staffing his transition team, and promising to continue monitoring his hiring of others going forward. The report was compiled in the intervening months, after extensive research of public financial and lobbying disclosures, White House press releases, and employment histories, and lists 192 current and former lobbyists and corporate insiders employed by the Trump Transition and Administration, including:
* Geoffrey Burr, Chief of Staff at the Department of Transportation and "Confirmation Lead" for Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao during the Trump Transition. Until September 2015, Burr was a lobbyist at Associated Builders and Contractors. Burr also briefly served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary the Department of Labor, where he worked to delay the Labor Department's silica rule, which aims to protect construction workers from toxic substances in the workplace
* Michael Catanzaro, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Energy and Environmental Policy at the National Economic Council and advisor to the Trump Transition on Energy Policy. Catanzaro is a former Partner at the CGCN Group, where he represented Devon Energy, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and Encana Oil and Gas as recently as 2017. The White House issued an ethics waiver for Catanzaro in May that permits him to "participate in broad policy matters and matters of general applicability relating to the Clean Power Plan, the WOTUS rule, and methane regulations," in spite of Executive Order 13770.
* Timothy Clark, White House Liaison at the Department of Health and Human Services, is the former President of the Clark Strategy Group, a lobbying firm that has represented the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Clark lobbied the federal government on behalf of pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc. as recently as 2017.
* Gary Cohn, the former President and Chief Operating Officer at Goldman Sachs, is the Chief Economic Advisor at the National Economic Council. Cohn received a $285 million payout after leaving Goldman Sachs to work for the Administration.
* Taylor Hansen, a former for-profit college lobbyist at the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (currently known as the Career Education Colleges and Universities), worked as a Special Assistant to the Secretary at the Department of Education before resigning in March 2017. In 2016, Hansen lobbied the Department of Education on issues and regulations impacting for-profit colleges.
* David Malpass, the President's nominee to serve as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, is currently the President of Encima Global, a consulting firm for Wall Street clients. Malpass served as the Chief Economist of Bear Stearns right before the financial crash and wrote in 2007 that "housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the U.S. economy, or of job creation." Malpass also served as a co-leader of the Agency Action Team on Economic issues during the Trump Transition.
On the campaign trail, President Trump promised Americans that he would "stop the gravy train for all these consultants, and all these people that are ripping off our country," and pledged to "expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants, advisors, all these different things." But instead of kicking them out, President Trump brought nearly 200 of them into the White House.
A copy of the full report is available here.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat and fearless consumer advocate who has made her life's work the fight for middle class families, was elected to the United States Senate on November 6, 2012, by the people of Massachusetts.
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As Billionaires Seethe, Organizers Say Proposed Wealth Tax in California Is 'Not Radical'
"Asking the handful of wealthiest Californians to contribute less than the annual appreciation on their fortunes to mitigate these crises is a small, reasonable, and administrable request," argued a group of experts.
Jan 02, 2026
Billionaire outrage against a proposed one-time wealth tax on the richest Californians reached a fever pitch in recent days as organizers began the process of gathering the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to get the initiative on the November ballot.
Without providing specifics, billionaire Bay Area investor Chamath Palihapitiya claimed in a social media post that he knows people "with a collective net worth of $500 billion" who "scrambled and left California for good yesterday" to avoid the potential 5% wealth tax, which would apply to billionaires living in California as of January 1, 2026. (The evidence for significant billionaire tax avoidance via physical relocation is virtually nonexistent.)
Palihapitiya characterized the proposed ballot initiative, which is aimed at raising revenue to avert a healthcare crisis spurred by federal Medicaid cuts, as an "asset seizure tax."
Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who lives in New York, similarly described the proposed tax as "an expropriation of private property."
The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, meanwhile, published a hostile editorial on Thursday denouncing the proposed tax and mocking its supporters, including Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW).
"Many progressives think of taxation the way teenage boys think about cologne: If some is good, more must be great," the editorial reads. "California, already reeks of overtaxation, but it’s thinking about trying out its most potent scent yet: a wealth tax. Just a whiff has some of the state’s wealthiest residents fleeing."
The Wall Street Journal reported that "the firms of two high-profile California investors issued announcements on New Year’s Eve about establishing new offices out of state, without saying anything about the proposed Golden State tax."
"Tech investor Peter Thiel’s investment firm, Thiel Capital, said it signed a lease in December for office space in Miami," the newspaper added. "The office will 'complement Thiel Capital’s existing operations in Los Angeles,' the company said."
Supporters say the response from billionaires and other opponents of the proposed tax—including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is helping raise money to fight the initiative—badly misses the mark. According to organizers, most billionaires see larger capital gains increases in months than the amount they would pay if California voters approved the tax.
“Asking those who have benefited most from the economy to contribute more—particularly to stabilize healthcare systems under direct threat—is not radical. It is reasonable,” Suzanne Jimenez, the chief of staff of SEIU-UHW, told the Journal.
Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed the proposed wealth tax, which proponents say would raise roughly $100 billion in revenue from around 200 California billionaires. Under the proposal, most of the resulting revenue would be allocated to a Billionaire Tax Health Account, while the rest would go toward an account to fund food assistance and education.
A new expert analysis of the proposal, authored by some of those involved in drafting the initiative, argues that the one-time tax is urgent because "decisions at the federal level have put—and will put—California's healthcare system, education system, and broader economy under severe stress."
"Asking the handful of wealthiest Californians to contribute less than the annual appreciation on their fortunes to mitigate these crises is a small, reasonable, and administrable request," the experts write. "And that is all that this ballot measure does."
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Trump Ends 2025 by Bombing More Boats, Bringing Death Toll to at Least 115
Journalists called out missing details from the latest disclosures, with one outlet saying that "US authorities no longer bother to specify where they're conducting the extrajudicial murders."
Jan 01, 2026
President Donald Trump's administration ended 2025 by driving up the death toll from its boat-bombing spree aimed at alleged drug smugglers, announcing US strikes on five more vessels that brought the total number of people killed to at least 115.
Legal experts and some members of Congress have condemned the dozens of deadly strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September 2 as "war crimes, murder, or both," but that hasn't stopped the administration from dropping more bombs.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on social media Wednesday afternoon that the previous day, at the direction of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, "Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted kinetic strikes against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy," which killed three people on the first boat.
"The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels," added SOUTHCOM, which notified the US Coast Guard "to activate the search and rescue system."
The Trump administration has faced particular criticism for its first boat attack, in which the US military killed a pair of survivors of an initial strike who were clinging to debris. Since then, two other survivors have been captured by the United States and returned to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador. In another case, Mexican authorities searched for but never found a survivor.
The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe on Wednesday called out the "woeful gaps in disclosure in this new statement," noting: "1) No details about where this occurred—not even a body of water. 2) It says a search and rescue effort was initiated, but includes no details about what has happened in the roughly 24 hours since. 3) How many survivors?"
Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali reported: "A US official tells me that eight people abandoned ship and are now being searched for. The Coast Guard says it is working with vessels in the area and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft has been deployed to the Pacific to help in the search."
Just hours after its first statement, SOUTHCOM said the task force "conducted a lethal kinetic strike" on two more boats Wednesday, killing "three in the first vessel and two in the second."
As with the earlier post, there was a video but SOUTHCOM declined to disclose the location. Venezuelanalysis responded on social media, "US authorities no longer bother to specify where they're conducting the extrajudicial murders."
Although the US Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to declare war, the Trump administration has argued that the strikes are justified because the United States is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels, which the president has designated as terrorist organizations.
Despite lawmakers in both major parties rejecting that argument, both Republican-controlled chambers of Congress have so far failed to advance various war powers resolutions aimed at ending the boat bombings and reining in Trump's march toward war with Venezuela—which he also attacked in December, according to Monday reporting.
After SOUTHCOM on Monday announced a Sunday boat strike that killed two people in the Pacific, Amnesty International USA declared on social media: "Once again, this is murder, plain and simple. Tell Congress to put a stop to it."
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Tax the Rich, Say Mamdani, Sanders, and NYC Inauguration Crowd
"For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it," said the new mayor. "Our City Hall will change that."
Jan 01, 2026
"Tax the rich. Tax the rich. Tax the rich."
The chants broke out at City Hall in New York on Thursday as US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addressed the crowd before swearing in Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who campaigned on a platform that prioritized NYC's working class.
"Demanding that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes is not radical. It is exactly the right thing to do," declared Sanders—who endorsed Mamdani even before his June primary victory over former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and "the billionaire-backed status quo."
The 34-year-old mayor on Thursday described Brooklyn-born Sanders—50 years his senior—as "the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be sworn in by today."
During the afternoon inauguration ceremony—which followed an early morning swearing-in at the abandoned subway station beneath City Hall—Mamdani also called for taxing the rich as he reiterated the agenda that secured him over 1.1 million votes in November.
"Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try," he said. "To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives."
"Here, where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home," Mamdani vowed. "Not only will we make it possible for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once again, we will overcome the isolation that too many feel, and connect the people of this city to one another."
The mayor said that "the cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family, because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. Those in rent-stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike, because we will freeze the rent."
"Getting on a bus without worrying about a fare hike or whether you'll be late to your destination will no longer be deemed a small miracle, because we will make buses fast and free," he continued. "These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom. For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. Our City Hall will change that."
The ceremony also featured remarks from another early Mamdani supporter, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), as well as the swearing-in of Jumaane Williams for a third term as New York City's public advocate and Mark Levine, the new comptroller.
"New York, we have chosen courage over fear," said Ocasio-Cortez, whose district spans the Bronx and Queens. "We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few. And when the entrenched ways would rather have us dig in our feet and seek refuge in the past, we have chosen instead to turn towards making a new future for all of us."
AOC: New York City has chosen the ambitious pursuit of universal childcare, affordable rents and housing and clean and dignified public transit for all. We have chosen that over the distractions of bigotry and the barbarism of extreme income inequality
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 1, 2026 at 1:47 PM
As NYC kicked off the new year with progressive city leadership, 2025 findings from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index sparked fresh wealth tax demands. According to the tracker, the world's 500 richest people added a record $2.2 trillion to their collective fortunes last year. About a quarter of that went to just eight Big Tech billionaires: Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg.
In New York, Mamdani has proposed raising the state corporate tax rate from 8.85% to 11.5% and hiking taxes for individuals who make more than $1 million a year. Achieving those goals would require cooperation from state legislators.
Mamdani acknowledged Thursday that for much of history, the response from City Hall to the question of who New York belongs to has been, "It belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected, those who never strain to capture the attention of those in power."
In the years ahead, he pledged, "City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance, where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated."
"Together, we will tell a new story of our city," the mayor said. "This will not be a tale of one city, governed only by the 1%. Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor. It will be a tale of 8.5 million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together."
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