When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one of his biggest campaign promises was to "drain the swamp." In essence, he claimed he wanted to be a change from the "business as usual" politics of Washington. He continues to use this talking point, tweeting as recently as mid-February...
However, even early on into his presidency, he was already going back on that pledge, appointing to his administration corporate executives, lobbyists, and otherwise, some of whom had donated to his campaign. Now, he has appointed former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) as his new chief of staff, and Meadows resigned from Congress on Monday in order to take his new post. Again, depsite Trump's promise, Meadows is just another "business as usual" Washington insider.
From his first campaign for Congress in 2012 until his resignation, Meadows took $1,084,562 from corporate PACs, as well as $29,227 from lobbyists, with the amount of money he received from them steadily increasing each election (until 2020, when he had planned not to run for re-election). Among the industries giving to him throughout his time in Congress, leadership PACs contributed the most out of any (aside from "Retired"), a total of $323,111 . While that may not sound so bad, where are these leadership PACs getting their money from? Listed below are the leadership PACs that gave to Meadows that spent a total of at least $1,000,000 on a specific election cycle.
Every Republican is Crucial PAC: A top-contributing PAC in 2012 and 2014, during each election cycle, Meadows took $10,000 from them, a total of $20,000. Goldman Sachs was among their biggest donors, contributing $87,600 in 2012 and $98,500 in 2014. This makes Meadows's appointment somewhat hypocritical on the part of the president, as Trump criticized Goldman Sachs during his 2016 campaign, stating that "they have total control over Hillary Clinton." Additionally, the PAC took nearly $190,000 from the oil and gas industry over these two election cycles, over $450,000 from lobbyists, and nearly the same amount from the pharmaceutical industry.
Freedom Project: In 2012 and 2014, Meadows received a total of $15,000 from this PAC. Throughout these election cycles, the commercial banking industry gave $124,500, the oil and gas industry donated $192,000, the pharmaceutical industry contributed over $190,000, while the PAC accepted nearly $310,000 from lobbyists.
Majority Committee PAC: Throughout the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, the Majority Committee PAC contributed to Meadows a total of $15,000. Industries contributing to the PAC once again include the pharmaceutical ($226,700), commercial banking ($152,650), and oil and gas industries ($133,388), as well as lobbyists ($166,125).
Prosperity PAC: Meadows took $5,000 from them in 2012. They received $55,250 from the pharmaceutical industry, $46,650 from the commerical banking industry, and $32,100 from the oil and gas industry.
Great America Committee: This PAC, an affiliate of Vice President Pence, donated $5,400 to Meadows in 2018. Throughout the election, the oil and gas industry contributed $244,225, the pharmaceutical industry gave $136,550, while the PAC accepted $148,850 from lobbyists.
As his history of campaign contributions shows, Mark Meadows is not likely to help Trump to deliver on his promise to "drain the swamp." Sadly, at a time when money controls our politicians, this is just yet another example of the president not only failing to address the issue, but also escalating it.
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