Access to Trump Provides Business Success for Insiders

The emergence of a new category of insiders of the White House calls into the effectiveness of lobbying and anti-corruption laws.

Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign created political and business opportunities for some, but most specifically Elliot Broidy, who is an investor and defense contractor.

Mr. Broidy became the top fund-raiser for Mr. Trump’s campaign. Despite the wariness of elite Republican donors, he persisted with efforts of fundraising, which won the favor of Mr. Trump who rewarded him by overlooking a scandal of Mr. Broidy’s pension fund bribery case.

This relationship quickly led to a greater success for Mr. Broidy, who quickly capitalized at Mr. Trump’s election, marketing off his connections with Trump. His major appeal to his prospective customers and clients was that he could potentially arrange meetings between them and President Trump, his aides or congressional allies.

Mr. Broidy’s success in leveraging his political connections for commercial success is just one case of access peddling in the Trump administration. He has offered tickets to exclusive events and banquets to his clients and customers, which strides the thin, tricky line of using public resources to back extravagant lifestyles and habits. He has also helped Angolan politicians to go on a trip to the president’s private Florida resort and conduct a meeting with Republican senators. He even invited a Romanian parliamentarian to a party at Mr. Trump’s hotel in Washington despite the fact that the parliamentarian was facing charges of corruption.

These kinds of transactions Mr. Broidy has been conducting is a dangerous one, especially when it is not restricted or warned by the administration at all. Some are concerned that Mr. Broidy might be trespassing the realm of lobbying and anti-corruption laws if he were to continue to expand his business.

Mr. Trump himself has been challenging traditions of the presidency since his inauguration. He has completely changed the system of access to the president in the past year, and this lax measure has opened up many opportunities for access and business developments for those who are close to the White House, including loyalists, friends and hangers-on.

Mr. Broidy’s success also signals the influx of a new category of insiders who are close with Mr. Trump. These insiders are able to allow access to the president more intimately than others and therefore use that connection to lobby directly with their clients and partners. However, Mr. Broidy himself has negated the fact that his success sprang forth from his political connections, as he stated that his success was simply a reflection of his effective recruiting strategy: “The idea is that our success derives from activities around last year’s presidential inauguration is not only misplaced but insulting to the careers and capabilities of our highly trained and decorated veterans.”

However, Mr. Broidy is now facing a huge challenge from his business partners regarding his political integrity. An anonymous group has submitted hundreds of Mr. Broidy’s emails and contracts to the Times in an effort to expose his advocacy and swaying of Mr. Trump’s policy in the Middle East. Representatives of Mr. Broidy has defended him by stating that these documents were not only stolen but also a part of the larger effort of retaliation of Qatar to strengthen its power in the Middle East.

What these documents do reveal is that Mr. Broidy has arranged invitations to parties and events in the past with foreign leaders and partners repeatedly and there is a suspicion that these invitations were presented as a pathway to the cooperation of the foreign countries with Mr. Broidy’s company, Circinus.

More investigations will be held on these emails and Mr. Broidy’s involvement in shaping the Trump administration’s foreign policies. In response to this recent scrutiny, Mr. Broidy has been excluded from the most recent dinner and round-table with the president.

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