All Corporate Lobbyists Fired From President Trump’s Transition Team

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has ordered the firing of all lobbyists on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team after backlash from the public and the media.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was fired from the role of advising Trump’s transition team earlier this week. Former Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleges that Chris Christie held her city  hostage over Hurricane Sandy relief because she refused to back a deal with the Rockefeller Foundation.

If true, this suggests that Christie has ties to the infamous Rockefeller family, so kicking Chris Christie off the transition team might have just prevented the Rockefellers from having influence under a Trump presidency.

Mike Pence has said that the move was made because having lobbyists on the transition team contradicts the anti-establishment message that the Republican campaign had during it’s run for the white-house. He’s right – even Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) has accused Donald Trump of going back on his anti-establishment message.

“Americans do not want corporate executives to be the ones who are calling the shots in Washington. What Donald Trump is doing is that he’s putting together a transition team that’s full of lobbyists – the kind of people he actually ran against,” Warren told the Wall Street Journal.

A list of those ousted includes former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, an intelligence panel head, senior defense and foreign policy official Matthew Freedman, Rob Collins of S-3 Group, Mike Catanzaro at CGCN Group, Martin Whitmer of Whitmer & Worrall, J. Steven Hart at Williams & Jensen, and tobacco company Altria’s Cindy Hayden, among others.

Rogers had earlier been told that those brought on by Christie were being let go, the Journal reported.

The only known replacements are as follows: Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) replacing Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). Frank Gaffney, a former defense official in the Reagan administration, has been brought in to assist on national security issues, along with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

Pence was seen outside Trump tower carrying in a large binder presumed to be pictures, profiles and names of potential choices for the administration.

Trump has previously stated that one of his ideas to curb lobbying would be to increase the time that former federal and congressional officials have to wait before lobbying to five years.

Another policy Trump has proposed includes banning former White House officials from ever lobbying for a foreign government and banning foreign contributions to political campaigns.

Is Trump is really serious about “draining the swamp”? Time will tell – stay vigilant and we will keep you up to date on all this and more. Stay tuned to We Are Change.