Public Citizen Investigation Reveals Growing List of Corporate Conflicts Across the Trump Administration
Updated database finds Trump officials are overseeing former employers and industries as fossil fuel and crypto ties deepen
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A substantial update to Public Citizen’s Trump Conflict of Interests tracker identifies another wave of administration officials with financial or professional ties to the corporations and industries they are now positioned to regulate, reinforcing a broader pattern of corporate influence throughout the federal government.
The expanded tracker adds new officials and identifies emerging trends across the administration, including repeated ties to the American Petroleum Institute, Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s former company Liberty Energy, and the cryptocurrency industry. The update also finds that many officials have opted to say they’ll recuse themselves from matters involving former employees or financial interests rather than fully divesting those interests.
Among the trends documented in the updated tracker:
- Five senior Department of Energy officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, used to work at the firm Wright led, Liberty Energy, an oilfield services company.
- Four senior officials across multiple agencies are alumni of the American Petroleum Institute (API), and four others represented API in other capacities and are now shaping energy and environmental policies.
- Multiple administration officials have significant ties to cryptocurrency companies while helping also shape federal crypto policy.
- Several officials have relied on recusals instead of divesting their financial interests connected to the industries they oversee.
“Again and again the Trump administration has installed former corporate executives and industry leaders in positions overseeing the very sectors that made them wealthy,” said Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of Public Citizen. “Too often recusals are being treated as a substitute for eliminating conflicts altogether. The public deserves confidence that government decisions are being made in the public interest instead of for personal financial gain.”
Public Citizen’s Conflicts of Interests tracker documents administration officials whose past or ongoing financial, professional, or lobby ties raise potential concerns about their public ability to independently regulate industries in the public interest. The tracker includes cabinet officials and political appointees across the federal government and is updated as new appointees and disclosures become available.
The tracker can be viewed here and is updated on a weekly basis.