Closing the Drain: Interest Groups and the Populist President.

• Author: Cole, N. Scott

During the 2016 American presidential campaign, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump said he would "drain the swamp" if elected. "We're going to end government corruption and we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.," (1) he told supporters at a rally in Colorado. When speaking about the "swamp," Trump was partly referring to the relationships between interest groups and politicians, which he argued are detrimental to America. An interest group uses direct lobbying and campaign donations, among other tools, to advance the shared policy objectives of its membership. During the election, he warned that if the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were elected, "special interests will remain firmly in control." (2) Trump had earlier made similar remarks about former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush while vying against him for the Republican nomination. (3) This is not new rhetoric. Populists frequently contend that their opponents are beholden to powerful "insider" forces.

In a television interview, Trump criticized political action committees (PACs) that were sponsoring ads attacking him, saying that they controlled his rivals with their campaign contributions. He also condemned interest groups that were promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), arguing that TPP "is another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country, just a continuing rape of our country." (4) Trump singled out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for criticism in this case. He said that it was "totally controlled by the special interest groups." (5)

Once in the White House, President Trump introduced few policies aimed at regulating lobbyists, those powerful representatives of special interest groups in Washington. He issued an order restricting his appointees from lobbying their agencies within five years after leaving government service. He also banned them from working with and for foreign governments for life. (6) While these steps were implemented, there is no record of Trump asking Congress to stop its members and staffers from seeking employment with interest groups after leaving Capitol Hill, which he promised to do on the campaign trail. Moreover, no legislation has been submitted to clarify who needs to comply with the Lobbying Disclosure Act, another commitment he made during 2016. During the election, President Trump pledged to prevent registered foreign lobbyists from raising money during campaigns, but nothing has come to fruition on this subject. In addition, the Trump administration hired approximately one hundred former lobbyists to supervise their one-time employers. As one New York Times reporter noted, "If draining the swamp means less lobbying, that isn't happening. Since Election Day, the number of new lobbyist registrations is up compared with a year ago." (7)

It is evident that President Trump has failed to fulfill or even attempted to fulfill his commitment to weaken the influence of interest groups. During the election, he was meeting with "industry leaders, including a veteran lobbyist and the chief executive of a major airline trade organization," (8) the hypocrisy of which frequently got lost in the circus-like news coverage the election race inspired. Furthermore, President-elect Trump received millions of dollars from corporations to fund his inaugural. "Raising nearly twice as much as Barack Obama's 2009 record of $53 million, Donald Trump pulled in inaugural funds from, among others, corporations and wealthy individuals." (9) These activities are now under judicial scrutiny in Washington DC, where prosecutors allege that the Trump International Hotel reaped huge profits from grossly inflated fees it charged the Presidential Inaugural Committee to rent event space during his swearing-in ceremony. (10) According to The Atlantic, "There is not a campaign promise that Donald Trump has failed to honor more flagrantly than his oft repeated pledge to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, D.C. He has violated the letter of his promise and trampled all over its spirit." (11)

During his presidency, lobbyists have connected with members of Trump's cabinet on numerous occasions. In 2017, for example, Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with one of the most important coal executives in the United States, Robert Murray. At this confab, Murray presented Secretary Perry with a memo outlining his industry's political objectives. After reading the document, Perry replied, "'I think we can help you with this.'" (12) Making good on this promise, the Department of Energy later proposed regulatory changes that allowed power plants to increase coal stockpiles. In October 2017, furthermore, The Washington Post reported that three of Trump's cabinet secretaries--Wilbur Ross, Alexander Acosta, and Rick Perry--attended a meeting of the National Mining Association (NMA), an organization that represents resource extraction companies. (13)

The president himself has conferred in private with interest groups at the White House. After meeting with the NRA in the wake of a school shooting, Trump "abandoned his promise to work for gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association, bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the background check system." (14) He has also sat down with credit union lobbyists to discuss banking regulations. (15) In addition, one of the president's fundraisers, who coordinated his activities with representatives from the United Arab Emirates, met with Trump in a bid to have Secretary of State Rex Tillerson fired for refusing to back UAE efforts to weaken Qatar. (16) Energy executives have also visited the president to discuss public policy. (17)

Interest groups are taking additional steps to impact Trump's decisions, such as hosting conferences at his properties, which include hotels and resorts. "While it's impossible to draw a direct link between where groups seeking to influence the Trump administration hold their events and what they received, one thing is certain: Never before in American history have such groups had the opportunity to hold an event at a property owned by the president, paying for event space, rooms and food with money that ultimately heads into the president's pockets." (18) The NMA experimented with this lobbying tactic in 2017 when it sponsored a conference at Trump's hotel in Washington, DC.

Why has Trump allowed interactions between his administration and interest groups to flourish after promising to stop them? To answer this question, this article examines his relationship with the coal industry. During the 2016 election, Trump frequently held rallies with coal miners around Appalachia. At these events, he praised their hard work and contributions to America, promising to save their jobs and communities. Coal bosses also appeared at these assemblies and applauded his proposals. Since Trump made the energy sector a central part of his campaign, it is useful to focus on his interactions with King Coal when trying to understand why a populist leader would foster relationships with interest groups while at the same time promising to dismantle them. In the United States, the coal industry is frequently referred to as "King Coal" to denote its immense political and economic influence. For this study, Trump's dealings with coal bosses provide valuable material for an examination of his behavior.

While presidents may want to keep lobbyists around for a variety of reasons, Trump's actions highlight a unique factor to consider. Specifically, this study contends that his populist style requires a political context where he can connect with the "common man," foster a crisis, and display nationalism. While not every interest group helps him construct the populist environment he needs, King Coal does, which helps explain why Trump has coordinated his activities with this influential organization. First, in terms of building relationships with the "common man," the coal industry provides the president access to miners, who symbolize the hard-working spirit of America. Spending time in mining communities helps Trump establish the belief that he is a legitimate representative of "real Americans." Second, in the twenty-first century, coal country has faced significant problems, such as rising unemployment and drug addiction, partly due to the coal sector's declining fortunes. Exploiting the challenges facing miners today, the president can construct a crisis narrative in order to stoke economic fear in other parts of America. Third, working with King Coal helps Trump spotlight another feature of his populist style: patriotism. The president connects his "America First" agenda with the energy industry's fight against global environmentalism, a strategy that seeks to arouse nationalism across the United States. Promoting this populist political context is essential for Trump as he seeks to gain power.

When researching populism, authors must eventually confront the problems associated with defining such a slippery concept. According to John Judis, "When political scientists write about populism, they often begin by trying to define it, as if it were a scientific term like entropy or photosynthesis. That's a mistake." (19) Even though populism can be "elusive and protean," as Ghita Ionescu and Ernest Gellner put it, (20) scholars have attempted to provide some clarity. Alistair Hennessy, for instance, says that populism represents the mobilization of politically unaffiliated industrial workers, at least in the case of Latin America. (21) Richard Hofstadter also pursues an economic perspective in his definition, arguing that these types of movements are driven by the financial anxieties of "entrepreneurial radicals." (22) While the Jacksonian variety also includes economic empowerment, it adds anti-elitism and the political mobilization of the "common man."

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