President Donald Trump’s return to the White House appears to have sparked a change in tune on K Street, the heart of lobbyist influence in Washington, D.C., as several prominent lobbyist voices are now pledging to work with the new president after previously criticizing him.
‘Manufacturers are ready to work with @realDonaldTrump to roll back the federal regulatory onslaught, unleash American energy and build on the success of the pro-growth Trump Tax Cuts,’ Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), posted on X after Trump’s victory, adding in a press release that he congratulates Trump on ‘on his historic victory and strong performance across manufacturing intensive states.’
The praise of Trump comes after years of vigorously criticizing him, including after the January 6 riot, when he said that Trump ‘incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy.’
Additionally, Timmons called on then-Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office.
‘What we saw on January 6th was absolutely one of the most horrifying things that any of us who love America could have ever witnessed,’ Timmons said.
Timmons also said that Trump’s handling of the coronavirus appeared to have been ‘weaponized, and it became a political tool.’
Timmons also had a long history of praising the Biden administration for its accomplishments, saying that he ‘built a substantial legacy’ in four years and celebrating Biden’s work on the coronavirus when he was elected by saying ‘it is fantastic to have a partner in the White House’, adding that ‘we felt like we were fighting this fight, frankly, all alone for the last year.’
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a NAM spokesperson said, ‘President Trump wants to grow manufacturing in the United States. The NAM is working with him to do that.’
Shortly after Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race, NAM put out a press release saying that Biden ‘Has Rallied the World to the Cause of Democracy.’ NAM would then invite Trump to call into their board meeting a little over a month before the presidential election, where he discussed taxes, energy, and regulations stifling the manufacturing industry.
Stephen Ubl, president and chief executive officer of PhRMA, also spoke out about January 6, calling it ‘appalling,’ and took issue with some aspects of Trump’s agenda items, including his executive order push to ‘Buy American,’ which Ubl said would create ‘even more barriers to innovation and efforts to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.’
Ubl’s company, along with other organizations, filed a lawsuit in 2020 ‘against the Trump administration’s new rules for lowering drug prices.’
Ubl, who has donated at least $15,000 to Democrats, has struck a more positive tone since Trump’s victory, posting on X that he is ‘committed to working with the Trump administration and the new Congress to make our health care system work better for patients while preserving our unique ecosystem that enables greater innovation and lower costs for patients.’
Ubl met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in early December, and PhRMA donated funds to Trump’s inauguration.
‘With President Trump now officially sworn into office, I look forward to working with his administration to address key challenges facing our industry and fighting for solutions to help patients access and afford the treatments they need,’ Ubl posted on X in January.
Neil Bradley, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, said after January 6 that Trump’s words and actions ‘have no place in a free and Democratic society’ and the New York Times reported that he said the chamber is ‘evaluating how lawmakers voted last week during the electoral vote certification process and how they vote in the coming days when the House moves to impeach Mr. Trump when making decisions about donations.’
Bradley was also critical of President Trump’s decision to end DACA, saying in 2017 that it ‘runs contrary to the president’s goal of growing the U.S. economy.’
Bradley, a Democratic donor who donated to former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney after she voted to impeach Trump, said after Trump’s election that ‘his actions are a long overdue change in direction that will help unleash the American economy, resulting in more innovation and faster growing paychecks for American workers.’
Shortly after Trump’s victory, the Business Roundtable (BRT) put out a press release saying that it ‘congratulates President-elect Donald Trump on his election as the 47th President of the United States.’
‘We look forward to working with the incoming Trump Administration and all federal and state policymakers.’
Before Trump’s re-election, several members of the BRT were highly critical of Trump, including CEO Joshua Bolten, who called Trump unfit for office in 2016, before he joined BRT in 2017, and donated to prominent Trump critic Liz Cheney in 2021 and 2022.
Bolten also donated to Trump critic and former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger in 2021 after he voted to impeach Trump.
Kristen Silverberg, president and COO of BRT, signed a letter opposing Trump’s election in 2016, before she joined BRT in 2019, and donated several thousand dollars to Cheney’s re-election efforts after she voted to impeach Trump, FEC records show.
Records also show that Silverberg donated multiple times to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign against Trump in the Republican primary in 2023, as well as Chris Christie’s campaign in the same primary.
BRT hosted President Trump twice during CEO Quarterly Meetings with Bolten and Silverberg at the helm, and the group also met with then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance during their Q3 2024 meeting with CEOs in September.
The organization pointed to Bolten and Silverberg making no public anti-Trump statements since 2016 and said they have worked ‘closely’ with both Trump administrations on important policy initiatives. The organization also said that donations to Cheney, a former colleague, were for her reelection and not her anti-Trump efforts.
‘Business Roundtable worked with President Trump to advance tax reform and USMCA during his first term, and we look forward to working together in his second to continue advancing economic policies that expand opportunity for all Americans,’ BRT spokesperson Michael Steel told Fox News Digital. ‘Those policies include extending and strengthening the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, securing major regulatory and permitting reforms, and ensuring a skilled U.S. workforce.’
