AUTO INDUSTRY/CABINET/ENERGY/LOBBYING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Trump likes to say that people in his political orbit come straight out of central casting, ‘tough hombres’ from far beyond the Capital Beltway ready to roil the swamp. Increasingly, though, his cabinet is full of lobbyists. On Friday [10-18-19] came the latest lobbyist elevation. Out went Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the genial former governor of Texas and onetime Dancing with the Stars contestant. In came his deputy, Dan Brouillette, who spent much of his career as a senior vice president of the United Services Automobile Association, a financial services company, and at the Ford Motor Company… The pattern holds throughout the agencies trusted to provide for the common defense, promote clean air and water, care for public lands and waters, and safeguard energy supplies and nuclear weapons.”
–Lisa Friedman, “New Energy Secretary Fits Trend: Cabinet Dominated by Lobbyists,” The New York Times online, October 18, 2019