'It's Trump 5.0': Lobbyists reveal how Trump is changing the influence game

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

75% : Scott Mason, a senior policy advisor at the lobbying firm of Holland & Knight who served as the director of congressional relations for Trump's presidential campaign and transition team in 2016, is blunt about the prospects of Trump 2.0: "It'll be a great year for the lobbying world," he says.
60% : A presence at the resort -- along with the golf courses Trump owns in West Palm Beach, Doral, and Jupiter -- is now seen as a major currency in the lobbying game.
57% : In many respects, they say, Palm Beach is going to be the new K Street -- the headquarters of the political-influence industry -- particularly since Trump no longer owns a luxury hotel blocks from the White House.
57% : But lobbying insiders say Trump's presidential transition has brought a new level of unpredictability -- one that also represents a golden opportunity, for those able to capitalize on it. "Trump has a mandate from the American people and is using it," says B. Jeffrey Brooks, a partner at Adams and Reese, a law firm with more than 300 attorneys and lobbyists across the country.
55% : Unlike his predecessors, Trump is allowing donors -- including foreign nationals -- to finance his transition in secret, through unlimited private contributions.
54% : Ballard's lobbying business in Florida, meanwhile, regularly ranks among the state's top-earning firms, making it ideally positioned to once again be the go-to lobbying shop for corporations and special interests eager to cozy up to Trump and his MAGA allies in Congress.
53% : "It's more like Trump 5.0.
52% : "This is not Trump 2.0," says Justin Sayfie, a partner at Ballard Partners, a powerhouse lobbying firm with deep Florida roots and an office down the road from Mar-a-Lago.
52% : By leveraging his access to Trump, Ballard Partners was able to compete with the old white-shoe lobbying firms that have been the industry's dominant players for decades.
52% : " Through his appointments and his campaign promises, lobbyists say, Trump has clearly signaled his desire to remake Washington in Florida's regulation-slashing, "woke"-fighting image -- and do so from the comforts of his "Winter White House," now a political redoubt for all seasons.
49% : " There's also a new way corporations can seek to influence Trump -- without disclosing their influence.
48% : First and foremost, that means hiring lobbyists in the state to work the hallways and links at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and his inner circle have been charting the transition and making Cabinet picks.
47% : "Trump is such a wild card, and that gives him a lot of leverage.
46% : The firm's success offers some lessons for lobbying firms itching to capitalize on their ties to Trump and his inner circle and establish a beachhead in Florida.
45% : What's more, the consensus among lobbyists is that anyone who hopes to influence Trump this time around will have to dispense with traditional lobbying conventions.
43% : "We can't do this the same old way," says one prominent lobbyist with ties to Trump.
41% : Among them are two former Ballard lobbyists: Susie Wiles, whom Trump has tapped to serve as his White House chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, his choice for attorney general.
40% : Corporate clients need lobbyists who appreciate that Trump is "disrupting the status quo in Washington," Sayfie, the Ballard lobbyist, says.
30% : Whatever companies think of Trump and his policies, they now face the prospect of a president who speaks openly about pursuing retribution for what he perceives as slights.
14% : On the campaign trail, Trump threatened John Deere with tariffs, called for the prosecution of Google, and tanked Meta's stock price by denouncing Facebook as "an enemy of the people."

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