BREAKINGVIEWS-Washington’s K Street runs express to White House

By Gabriel Rubin

WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - An extremely personalist approach to politics is making bad lobbying habits worse. President Donald Trump’s leadership approach has shredded procurement processes, amplified friendships and intensified punishments against enemies, creating a fresh – and new kind of – boom on K Street, where Washington’s influence peddlers call home. The returns on such investment are also now far less predictable.

Numbers tell part of the story. The $2.5 billion spent trying to shape policy during the first half of 2025 represented a 12% increase from last year. Some industries under attack from the administration, including renewable energy, increased their budgets by even more, as have other organizations that either previously kept a lower profile in the corridors of federal power or which typically backchannel through ambassadorial contacts. Recent newcomers to the nation’s capital, like cryptocurrency enthusiasts, are also throwing around exorbitant sums.

Further reshaping the persuasion business is Trump’s management style. His willingness to curb prosecutions against foreign influence, fire ethics officials and openly solicit corporate investment pledges dramatically changes how corporate and other advocacy groups pitch the federal government.

This all extends far beyond the city’s typical backroom dealing. Trump officials have been more openly solicitous of favors and funds than previous administrations. Getting close to the president and his lieutenants is now more than ever an essential part of strategic corporate planning, completing mergers and acquisitions, scratching out exemptions from tariffs, sidestepping regulations and warding off insidious pressure and intervention. Moreover, academic research on the amount of sway lobbyists typically have on policy is mixed, at best, but the odds are swinging in their favor, threatening to subvert trust in elected officials while distorting markets and the economy in lasting ways.

Professional influencers orbiting the president are raking in big fees, even if the outcomes are patchy. For example, Ballard Partners, led by Republican strategist Brian Ballard and which previously employed White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi, vaulted to the top of the powerbroker rankings this year, after adding oil titan Chevron CVX.N, mega-bank JPMorgan JPM.N, software developer Palantir Technologies PLTR.O and dozens of others to its client list. The firm also works for Trump targets Harvard University and law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Some industries with the most to gain from policy and regulatory shifts, or preventing them, also have deep pockets. Artificial intelligence startups, for one, are spending heavily to help shape the legal frameworks that will govern the technology for years. OpenAI, the ChatGPT-developer led by Sam Altman, devoted $620,000 to lobbying efforts in the second quarter, 30% more than a year earlier, ahead of the White House’s AI policy blueprint released in July. About 500 other companies also reported lobbying over machine learning, according to disclosures parsed by political news outlet Politico.

Bitcoin and Ethereum devotees have used a deluge of campaign donations, propagation across Capitol Hill and public relations to get their anti-interference message across. During the 2024 election cycle, groups including political action committee Fairshake devoted more than $100 million to securing a pro-crypto congressional majority and defeat skeptics. Creative stunts are also becoming a bigger part of the playbook. Coinbase Global COIN.O, for example, installed branded vending machines around Washington that contained some 5,000 customized chocolate bars to “create a sugar rush for crypto across the Capitol.”

These multipronged approaches have caught the attention of Trump allies. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, praised digital currency buffs in August, thanking them for “getting rid” of his predecessor with $40 million in donations to his opponent. In return, crypto backers got the top items on their wish list: sympathetic regulators in key positions and a new pro-stablecoin law this summer.

Trying to fend off the president has been just as costly, but less effective. Institutions of higher learning, under fire for championing diversity and allegedly mishandling campus protests, are boosting their lobbying budgets. Members of the Association of American Universities trade group spent almost $10 million in the first quarter alone on such initiatives. Columbia University, one of Trump’s top targets, more than tripled its outlays.

Drugmakers accustomed to successfully throwing their weight around Washington also have spent more with little to show for it. Moderna MRNA.O allocated $800,000 to lobbying in the first half of 2025, nearly as much as it did all last year. It didn’t stop the Department of Health and Human Services under anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from ending a $500 million contract for mRNA vaccines, the company’s main product. Moderna has lost almost 70% of its market value over the past year.

It’s a similar story for clean energy. Solar, wind and other renewable power providers significantly enlarged their lobbying budgets, but emerged empty-handed from recent tax-bill negotiations. Despite acknowledging that funding to reduce fossil fuel usage benefited their constituents, virtually all congressional Republicans voted to end the Biden-era green subsidies.

Trading partners also have found it difficult to get their message to the Oval Office. India and Vietnam hired Trump-affiliated firms to pitch on U.S. trade and yet are stuck with respective 50% and 20% tariffs, far higher than the 15% rate negotiated by Japan, the European Union and others.

There are other less conventional ways to attract this president’s attention, however. Companies and countries have blasted out 12-digit investment figures that resonate with Trump, especially if he gets to be part of the reveal. These can even be a cheaper way to curry favor, since the sums are often from previously announced initiatives, non-binding or much less than they seem, as was the case for Britain’s deal to buy Boeing planes or Japan’s $550 billion commitment to U.S. manufacturing.

The administration keeps a running scorecard of companies that have been “loyal” to it, Axios reported in August, drawing an explicit line from fealty to preferential treatment. A separate list on the White House website showcases corporate pledges, labeled the “Trump Effect.” From there, it’s only a small step to taking ownership stakes or micromanaging companies from Intel INTC.O to Coca-Cola KO.N.

A government guided largely by the highest bidders is a highly inefficient one and ripe for misconduct. It also instills deeper cynicism about democracy and justifiable fears of corruption. Over the decades, other countries so captured have suffered hyperinflation and scared off investors. Such disastrous outcomes are becoming increasingly possible in the United States, even without anybody specifically lobbying for them.

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