Is Trump draining the swamp?
For context, this is a question I answered on Quora
No, he has in fact filled it with his own swamp critters.
The first woman to be the Whitehouse Chief of staff was a high level lobbyist for big Pharma, big tobacco and the ultra processed food industry. Susie Wiles, who managed Trump’s campaign, is the co-chair of the lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs whose clients include not only ultra processed food conglomerates such as Nestle and Kraft but also foreign governments such as the state of Qatar, Libya’s national oil company, and state owned Chinese companies such as JinkoSolar, Hikvision, and Alibaba.
AG Pam Bondi is a former FARA registered lobbyist with Ballard Partners on behalf of the state of Qatar, Amazon, and private prison contractors like The GEO Group.
Kelsey Barnes, who was appointed as Brooke Rollin’s senior advisor at the Dept of Agriculture, is a former lobbyist for the Chinese state owned pesticide manufacturer and seed company Syngenta.
Kailee Tkacz Buller, appointed Chief of Staff for USDA, was president and CEO of two seed oil lobbies (National Oilseed Processors Association and the Edible Oil Producers Association) between Trump's first and current term. Prior to being appointed Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture during Trump’s first term she was a lobbyist for the ultra processed food industry who worked for the Corn Refiners Association and SNAC International, which represents junk food brands such as The Hershey Company, PepsiCo, and Wise Foods.
Scott Hutchins, who was appointed undersecretary for research, is former executive for Dow Chemical’s pesticide division.
At the EPA, Nancy Beck, head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), was a senior director of regulatory science policy for the Chemical Industry trade group American Chemistry Council before becoming an EPA toxicologist currently in charge of pesticide regulations. She was the CPSC head for the prior Trump admin as well.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy is a former lobbyist with BGR Group which he joined after leaving congress in 2019. BGR Groups’ biggest clients are Big Pharma (e.g. Merck), Tobacco industry (British American Tobacco) and Bayer Crop (which acquired Monsanto) and fake meat company Impossible foods
Current Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, was a hedge-fund manager who worked for the Soros Fund Management as chief investment officer from 2011–2015. Soros gave him a $2 billion allocation to start his own hedge fund.
Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of all the swamp critters running the Trump admin.