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“Lobbying expenditures on trade issues were a staggering 277 percent higher in the first quarter of 2025 than in the first quarter of 2024, according to data reported to the clerk of the House of Representatives and compiled by Advancing American Freedom Foundation, a conservative nonprofit. In raw dollars, lobbying firms reported spending $4.9 million on trade-related issues in the first three months of this year, up from $1.3 million during the same three months in 2024.

There’s also been a huge expansion in the number of lobbying firms working on the tariff issue. According to the House data, 212 different entities registered some spending on tariff lobbying in the first quarter of this year, up from just 89 that worked on tariff issues in the first three months of last year.

And the average cost to businesses is increasing too. Compared to last year, the average tariff lobbying contract is now 21 percent higher, according to AAFF’s analysis.”

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“”Although President Donald Trump popularized calls to ‘drain the swamp,’ his favorite policy tool, tariffs, has actually enlarged it and generated a massive financial windfall for K Street lobbyists while hardworking American families pick up the tab,” writes Joel Griffith, policy adviser at AAFF, in the Washington Examiner.

In practice, that means some businesses have sought relief from tariffs for themselves while pushing for higher tariffs on competitors.”

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“This is also exactly what happened during the first Trump trade war. A Lehigh University study published last year found that politically connected firms—specifically, those that donated to Republican candidates, including Trump—were more likely to succeed when asking the government for an exemption on imports that would normally be subject to tariffs.”

https://reason.com/2025/04/23/trumps-tariffs-are-causing-an-economic-boom-for-d-c-lobbyists/