WE ARE 100% INDEPENDENT AND READER-FUNDED. FOR A GUARANTEED AD-FREE EXPERIENCE AND TO SUPPORT REAL NEWS, PLEASE SIGN UP HERE, TODAY.
PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: Several senior White House aides are leaving for lobbying jobs.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Harrison Fields, Trent Morse, Bo Hines, and May Davis Mailman, among others.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The announcements were made in August 2025 in Washington, D.C.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The demand for these folks is so high that business and folks are looking for a sherpa for this administration,” said Ivan Adler, known as the “Lobbyist Hunter.”
🎯IMPACT: The moves highlight ongoing concerns about the revolving door between government and lobbying.
IN FULL
Several senior Trump administration officials have recently left the White House for roles in Washington’s influence industry, raising fresh concerns about ethics and the revolving door between government and lobbying.
On Wednesday, CGCN Group, a prominent Republican lobbying firm, announced it had hired Harrison Fields, formerly the White House’s principal deputy press secretary. Just a day earlier, Trent Morse, a deputy assistant to the President and deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, confirmed he is leaving to launch his own lobbying firm, partnering with the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck firm.
The departures come amid growing demand from businesses and organizations seeking help navigating the Trump administration’s policymaking. “The demand for these folks is so high that business and folks are looking for a sherpa for this administration, just because it’s so different,” said Ivan Adler, a veteran D.C. headhunter known as the “Lobbyist Hunter.”
Fields and Morse are not the only ones making the jump. Earlier this month, longtime Trump adviser May Davis Mailman left to start her own government affairs firm. Meanwhile, Bo Hines recently stepped down as executive director of the White House’s crypto council and joined digital asset giant Tether to advise on U.S. crypto policy.
Despite federally mandated one-year cooling-off periods preventing Fields and Morse from lobbying the White House or working for foreign entities directly, they are still permitted to lobby Congress and advise others seeking influence.
Kedric Payne, head of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, called White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’s public praise of Morse “a commercial for him. It’s great for business.”
Wiles, a former lobbyist who worked with Morse at multiple firms before, was blunt in her endorsement of Morse’s value as a lobbyist. “Nobody is better able to [guide clients] than Morse,” she said, citing his knowledge across virtually every department due to his role vetting over 3,000 administration hires.
Fields, in a statement, said he leaves the White House “with a heart full of incredible memories,” and looks forward to continuing to support the “MAGA movement” in a new role.
While such moves are common near midterms, the speed and volume of early exits from Trump’s White House have drawn attention. Adler noted, “Trump staffers can command top dollar.”
Image by AgnosticPreachersKid.
Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.
show less
