Corey Lewandowski, the former Donald Trump campaign manager and newly-minted Beltway lobbyist, says that “draining the swamp” is no longer a top priority for the Republican president-elect.
“If you had to put them in a chronological order, ‘drain the swamp’ is probably somewhere down at the bottom,” Lewandowski said Thursday in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”
“As opposed to getting tax reform done, making sure middle-class people have more jobs, making sure we’re renegotiating our bad trade deals, ensuring that we’re fixing ObamaCare,” he added.
During the campaign, the motto “Drain the swamp” became a rallying cry for Trump supporters. The real estate billionaire promised that he would “make our government honest once again” by instituting rules to limit lobbyists working for his administration.
But any walkback of those promises would seem to help Lewandowski. The controversial Trump loyalist announced on Wednesday that he and Trump adviser Barry Bennet are forming a lobbying firm called Avenue Strategies. (RELATED: Lewandowski To Open Government Relations Firm)
According to Politico, Lewandowski may be working to secure Mexican billionaire and New York Times owner Carlos Slim as a client. The political operative is said to have arranged a recent meeting between the two tycoons.
.@CLewandowski_: For Mr. Trump ‘drain the swamp’ is probably at the bottom of the list compared to fixing the economy pic.twitter.com/uoGeArnfNx
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) December 22, 2016
Lewandowski denied that he will “become a swamp creature or become a lobbyist.”
“If I can be a resource to corporations who want to get a fast answer from the government and not a long maybe, I think that’s a value add that I can potentially provide, so look, that’s what the goal is here,” he said during the interview.
“The goal isn’t to go and become a swamp creature or to become a lobbyist. I’m not going to be a lobbyist. It’s not going to happen,” added Lewandowski, who has worked as a federal lobbyist in the past.
Others close to Trump have indicated that he is backing off of the “drain the swamp” pledge.
“I’m told he now just disclaims that,” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday. “He now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore.”