Staffers are already fleeing the Trump administration for cushy lobbying jobs before the end of year one

Less than a year into the second Trump administration, a number of key staff members are heading for the exits while looking to pad their bottom lines by trading their government paychecks for the well-padded bank accounts of K Street lobbyists.

It’s a startling development for an administration led by a president who has campaigned for years on a desire to “drain the swamp” and clean up what he’s described as a “revolving door” between government and the various enterprises in the capital dedicated to influencing that government.

On Wednesday, one of the administration’s top spokespersons, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields, announced that he was leaving the administration to take a job at the lobbying firm CGCN Group. In the DC bubble, “K Street” refers to the lobbying hub of the nation’s capital.

The veteran communications operative, who also served in the White House press office during Trump’s first term, is also expected to aid another former boss, Florida Representative Byron Donalds, in his upcoming gubernatorial campaign.

Writing on X, Fields said his last day will be Friday and he will be leaving “with a full heart, immense appreciation, and faith in the work still ahead.”

“Serving as the White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary has been the honor of a lifetime. I thank God for the opportunity to return to the White House and play even a small role in shaping history. To be trusted with this responsibility — and to do it alongside such an extraordinary team — has been deeply humbling and incredibly fulfilling,” he said.

Trump’s White House is also losing another key staffer, cryptocurrency adviser Bo Hines, who will be taking an advisory job at digital assets firm Tether.

Another veteran Trump aide, May Davis Mailman, announced her departure earlier this month to hang out her own shingle as a government affairs consultant, and earlier this week Politico reported that the deputy White House personnel director, Trent Morse, is leaving his post to launch a firm of his own.

Although White House officials are legally prohibited from lobbying the White House directly for a year following their exit from government service, they are still permitted to lobby Congress and other executive branch agencies and leverage connections they might have made during their time in government.

Someone such as Morse, whose White House role saw him place thousands of appointees in agencies throughout the administration, will easily be able to tap that knowledge to help paying clients advance their own interests in Trump’s Washington.