With Daniel Lippman ANNALS OF THE REVOLVING DOOR I: Former President Donald Trump took aim at one of the political world’s favorite punching bags in an interview posted this week with podcast host Theo Von, decrying the “big problem” that is Washington’s revolving door — while failing to mention that one of his final acts on his way out of office was to lift ethics restrictions for his former aides. — “There's 1,800 big pharma lobbyists in Washington, D.C., right?” Von asked the former president, an apparent reference to the number of registered lobbyists who worked on issues related to pharmaceuticals and health products in 2023, according to OpenSecrets. Noting that total vastly outstrips the number of members of Congress, Von continued: “Just the fact that there's this whole other, almost drug government that's there kind of pushing … agendas and influencing things. Like, how do we stop that?” — “Well, you have to stop listening to lobbyists,” Trump responded. “You know, I was not a big person for lobbyists, and if they have even a little access to, like, a president or senator or a congressman or woman, they get a lot of money.” That appears to allude to the mad dash on K Street to make inroads with his incoming administration in 2016, a wave of interest that many cashed in on. — Trump and Von also bemoaned the well-worn path from working in the federal government to lobbying it. The former president agreed with Von that lobbyists are “winning” — and raking in money — before going on to mention that revolving door restrictions on former and incoming government officials are “one way you could stop it.” — “It's obviously a problem, and it's a big problem, and we were doing things about it,” Trump claimed, “but then we had to get down to other business.” — Ethics hawks have been underwhelmed by influence guardrails put in place by Democratic and Republican presidents alike. And coming into office after a campaign in which Trump vowed to “drain the swamp,” Trump’s team initially teased stiff requirements for lobbyists working on the transition or coming and going from his administration. — The actual ethics pledge he signed days after taking office — while weaker than his predecessor’s — barred officials from lobbying the agency they worked at for five years after they left (though it allowed them to lobby other parts of the government) and banned former administration officials from ever lobbying for a foreign government or political party. — Those rules still allowed at least 80 members of Trump’s administration to register as lobbyists by his last year in office, POLITICO reported at the time. But hours before his term ended, Trump withdrew the ethics restrictions (a step Bill Clinton also took), further freeing veterans of his administration to cash in on their White House and executive branch resumes. — Despite Trump’s contention that he is “not a big person for lobbyists,” there are several in his inner circle. Susie Wiles, one of his key campaign advisers, was a registered lobbyist until earlier this year. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager who started a lobbying firm months after the election, just rejoined the Trump campaign. And lobbyists Brian Ballard of Ballard Partners, Jeff Miller of Miller Strategies and Geoff Verhoff of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld have bundled more than $5.6 million for one of Trump’s joint fundraising vehicles this year, FEC filings show. Happy Thursday and welcome to PI. Some quick programming notes: I’ll be off tomorrow, but you’ll be in good hands as always with Hailey Fuchs — so send her all your remaining downtown gossip before this newsletter takes its annual August hiatus next week: hfuchs@politico.com. And be sure to follow both of us on X: @hailey_fuchs and @caitlinoprysko. ANNALS OF THE REVOLVING DOOR II: Former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the ex-chair of the House China Committee who led the charge in Congress to try and force the sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent company, is joining Palantir Technologies after all as its head of defense. Gallagher is also bringing his top congressional aide, Taylor Andreae, who will retain her title as Gallagher’s chief of staff, the company told PI exclusively. — “In the House, Gallagher served as chairman of the high-profile House select committee on China, aiming to ensure US supremacy in sectors like critical technology. The position aligns with Palantir’s warnings about the need for U.S. dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence,” Bloomberg’s Lizette Chapman writes. — “Gallagher said he’s currently on-boarding for the job, in which he’ll lead Palantir’s defense business, selling its data analysis technology to the U.S. government and allied countries. Defense technology sales represent the majority of the company’s government business, a sector it expects to grow. The Defense Department recently named Palantir prime contractor on a major contract involving artificial intelligence.” — Neither Gallagher nor Andreae, who has worked on the Hill since 2009, will be lobbying, a Palantir spokesperson said. BOND FACES CAMPAIGN FINANCE CHARGES: Michelle Bond, the former head of a cryptocurrency trade group and the domestic partner of former FTX executive Ryan Salame “was charged with campaign finance violations Thursday, a day after Salame asked a judge to vacate his conviction or block her indictment,” per Bloomberg’s Chris Dolmetsch and Ava Benny-Morrison. — The indictment against Bond, “the mother of Salame’s eight-month-old child, was unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleging she accepted unlawful contributions in connection with her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022. On Wednesday, Salame said in a filing in his case that prosecutors had reneged on a deal to drop any investigation of Bond if he agreed to plead guilty. The government labeled Salame’s claims false and self-serving.” — “According to the indictment, Bond, 45, of Potomac, Maryland, launched a campaign to represent New York’s 1st Congressional District in May 2022. Prosecutors say that Salame, who was identified in court documents as a high-level executive at ‘a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange,’ arranged for a ‘sham consulting agreement’ with FTX that paid her $400,000.” — “The government alleges that Bond then used the money to illegally fund her campaign, and that Salame wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to her personal bank account that she also used to finance her run for Congress.” BIG DONORS SCORE BIG PERKS AT DNC: RawStory’s Dave Levinthal reports that “in ballrooms, barrooms and backrooms this week, the business of big business is getting done with Democrats out of public view” at the DNC. — “Take the California Democratic Party, the home state party committee of 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris. For $250,000, a corporation, union, trade association or individual can this week claim a ‘California gold’ sponsorship that entitles the giver to a bevy of benefits, according to a brochure obtained by Raw Story.” — “Among the perks: membership on the party’s finance committee, ‘private VIP receptions,’ eligibility for ‘special’ convention credentials, ‘priority’ lodging and the ‘opportunity to include items in California delegates' tote bags.’ One's corporate or organization logo will be ‘displayed at the California Bash’ — a tony party on Aug. 21 at the House of Blues Chicago — and ‘all four California Delegate breakfasts.’” — “The Texas Democratic Party similarly offers a $50,000 ‘Longhorn’ package,” while the Maryland Democratic Party is hawking a “Chairman’s Sponsor” package for $75,000. “And the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit organization led by former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), is promoting its ‘exclusive landmark event space’ to ‘network with global political leaders’ and ‘400 high-level guests’ to ‘build relationships as they address pressing challenges to democracy,’ according to an invitation obtained by Raw Story.” SPOTTED at BLVD in Chicago for a brunch hosted by Ferox Strategies, per a tipster: Cristina Antelo, Debra Dixon and Lauren Doepke of Ferox, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Christopher Cox of Clarke’s office, Didier Barjon of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office, Lucas Lam of Rep. Marilyn Strickland’s (D-Wash.) office, Sequoia Ragland of Rep. Marc Veasey’s (D-Texas) office, Angeline Jabbar of Del. Stacey Plaskett’s (D-U.S. Virgin Islands) office, Shawn Whyte of Diageo, Zuraya Tapia-Hadley of TelevisaUnivision, Tequila Smith of Reworld Waste, Ibn Akbar Salaam of Waste Management, Abby Jagoda of ICSC, John Merrigan of Mayer Brown, Sirat Attapit of SheIn, Mateo Pierce-Mosquera of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, Matthew Spikes of Business Roundtable and Dontai Smalls of UPS. — And at the Four Seasons Chicago on Wednesday for a dumplings and martinis reception hosted by Palantir, per a PI tipster: Gerry Petrella of Microsoft, James Carville, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Funmi Olorunnipa and Mehdi Alhassani of Palantir, Alex Katz of Blackstone, Josh Harris, Nora Connors of PhRMA, Ankit Desai of Lafayette Advisors, Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.), Jennifer Frost of The Frost Group, Tonya Fulkerson and Ashley Kennedy of FK & Company, Heather Podesta of Invariant, Joe Britton of Pioneer Public Affairs, Elizabeth Falcone of Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-Va.) office, Mike Henry of Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) office, and former Sen. Mary Landrieu.
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