In his unlikely rise to the Republican nomination Donald J. Trump
attacked lobbyists, disparaged big donors and railed against the
party’s establishment. But on the shores of Lake Erie this week, beyond
the glare of television cameras, the power of the permanent political
class seemed virtually undisturbed.
Though
Mr. Trump promises to topple Washington’s “rigged system,” the opening
rounds of his party’s quadrennial meeting accentuated a more enduring
maxim: Money always adapts to power.
At
a downtown barbecue joint, lobbyists cheerfully passed out stickers
reading “Make Lobbying Great Again” as they schmoozed on Monday with
Republican ambassadors, lawmakers and executives. At a windowless bar
tucked behind the Ritz-Carlton hotel, whose rooms were set aside for the
party’s most generous benefactors, allies of Mr. Trump pitched a clutch
of receptive party donors on contributing to a pro-Trump “super PAC.”
And on Tuesday night, as Republican delegates formally made Mr. Trump their presidential nominee,
a few dozen lobbyists and their clients instead sipped gin and munched
on Brie puffs in an oak-paneled room at the Union Club. They had come to
witness a more urgent presentation: Newt Gingrich, a top Trump adviser
and Beltway fixture, painting an upbeat picture of the deals they could
help sculpt on infrastructure projects and military spending in the
first hundred days of a Trump administration.
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