Today’s notice: The next Trump administration has promised to be iconoclastic when it comes to traditional left-right divides. Lobbyists expect it will still listen to corporate power, but Mike Lee says it might be more skeptical of that power than you’d expect.
The Lobbyist Scramble
“‘K Street existed before the Trump administration. They will exist after the Trump administration.’ It’s the mentality they take into everything,” lobbyist Chris Barron told NOTUS’ Byron Tau. ”There’s chaos now.”
Barron’s firm, Right Turn Strategies, is ready for the MAGA government, given its close ties to Trumpworld since the president-elect’s first term in office. Other firms that stayed focused on what used to be called the Republican establishment are now scrambling to catch up. It’s similar to 2017, when MAGA-friendly firms got huge while others missed out on the windfall.
Byron reports that lobbying firms have been hiring up Republicans at a steady clip for two years now. “Among Fortune 50 companies, 57% of both in-house and outside lobbyists are Republicans — while about 43% are Democrats,” he reports. But for an industry that pushes billions of dollars around based on connections, the question now is, are they the right kind of Republicans?
“There’s a real thirst out there for people who know Trump,” staffing consultant Ivan Adler told Byron.
Even with the rise of Trump, there’s hope out there for the Democrat looking to cash in. “If you’re smart, you have a bipartisan firm,” Steve Elmendorf said.
NOTUS Scoop: Lina Khan’s Replacement Could Be a ‘Khanvert’
The top Republican senator on antitrust, Mike Lee, is whispering two names into Donald Trump’s ear to replace Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission: Republican FTC commissioner Melissa Holyoak or one of Lee’s former staffers, Mark Meador. (Both declined to comment.)
But the potential picks represent two very different versions of the future of corporate power and regulation. As sources tell NOTUS’ Claire Heddles, Holyoak would make a more traditional GOP pick, while Meador is known among some Khan supporters as a so-called “Khanvert,” meaning he’s more in line with Khan’s aggressive regulatory approach.
Granted, Meador has criticized the progressive anti-monopoly movement and some of Khan’s choice of cases. But he has also promoted a vision for a GOP pivot toward proactive, pro-competition enforcement.
Front Page
- ‘We Can’t Pigeonhole Communities’: Hispanics in Congress Say They Have Work to Do to Win Back Latino Voters: CHC Democrats say they have to listen to voters and focus on the economy again.
- Farm-Friendly Republicans Insist Trump’s Tariff Agenda Will Be Just Fine: The first Trump administration ended up doling out $28 billion in aid to shore up the farm industry during a trade war kicked off by tariffs.
- Mike Johnson Doesn’t Want the Gaetz Ethics Report Released: The speaker said he doesn’t want to open a “Pandora’s box” by breaking protocol.
Not the Reason You’d Think…
When Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick for HHS secretary, most Republicans celebrated. “First words out of my mouth was, ‘Bobby, this is the answer to my prayers,’” Sen. Ron Johnson said.
Yet NOTUS’ Mark Alfred and Helen Huiskes found a reason some Republicans aren’t in full party mode — and it’s not RFK’s vaccine skepticism, misinformation habit or brain worm. It’s that he supports abortion access. (Remember, RFK Jr. used to be a Democrat, after all.)
“He’s Catholic and pro-choice. That bothers me,” Rep. Tim Burchett told NOTUS. “I don’t see how Catholics can do that.”
And Burchett — an anti-abortion hard-liner — isn’t alone. “Let’s be clear: Robert F. Kennedy is wrong on the abortion issue,” Rep. Dusty Johnson told NOTUS.
Preventing Pandemic Prevention
The nomination of RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has experts worried about inexperienced leadership, with potentially significant consequences. Namely: What happens if there’s another pandemic?
“The elephant in the room is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Allison Winnike, director of the western region of the Network for Public Health Law, told NOTUS’ Margaret Manto. “I worry that we will not have the sort of levels of subject matter expertise leading these agencies that we have in past administrations, or even in the previous Trump administration.”
Potential cuts to testing programs, such as for wastewater, are another concern in efforts to keep emerging threats, like bird flu, at bay. Meanwhile, Kennedy said in July that bird flu might have been bioengineered and deliberately released. (There’s no evidence of that.)
“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and you saw the disastrous, chaotic, ineffective behavior of President-elect Trump during COVID-19,” Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz told NOTUS’ Emily Kennard.
Week Ahead
- The U.N. climate summit, COP29, will be going on all week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- Joe Biden is wrapping up his swing through Peru and Brazil for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, G20 leaders summit and a stop in the Amazon rainforest. He’s already met with Xi Jinping on the trip.
- Congress is back to work on a government funding plan before they take a week off for Thanksgiving.
- Trump is expected to round out his cabinet. He’s been filling top spots quickly, so we won’t venture a guess which roles are still open by the time you read this.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- In Northeast D.C., a rancorous post-election fight erupts — over bike lanes by Rachel Weiner for The Washington Post
- Biden Asked Microsoft to ‘Raise the Bar on Cybersecurity.’ He May Have Helped Create an Illegal Monopoly by Renee Dudley for ProPublica
- GOP Dentists: RFK Will Rot America’s Teeth by Joe Perticone for The Bulwark
- New ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Is Actually a Familiar Swamp Creature by Arthur Delaney for HuffPost
Be Social
Tim Burchett takes a bite of the Big Apple.
.@timburchett just now: “Pray for me I’m going to New York City for the first time. I’m 60 years old.”🥹
— Tinashe Chingarande (@TinasheReports) November 15, 2024
Meet Us: Emily Kennard
Welcome to “Meet Us” where we introduce you to a member of the NOTUS team. Up today is Emily Kennard who is an AJI fellow and reporter covering Missouri.
- Hometown: Russellville, Arkansas
- Past: I was editor in chief at the University of Central Arkansas’ student-run newspaper, The Echo, and a reporting intern at OpenSecrets.
- Why journalism: It makes me feel more connected to the world I live in, and I learn something new every day.
- AJI highlight so far: Meeting so many great people with the same ambitions I have.
- Thing you can’t live without: My emotional support water bottle.
- Best advice you’ve ever been given: “Just do the damn thing.”
Tell Us Your Thoughts
Will the FTC remain anti-monopolist in the Trump administration?
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