How to Get Rich in Trump’s Washington
Lewandowski had beaten him on some pitches, Stryk was told by prospective clients, by promising
that he could get Trump on the phone — a promise Stryk felt he could not make.
The former Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich, a ‘‘senior adviser’’ to the lobbying practice at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, was hawking a book titled ‘‘Understanding Trump.’’ Established K Street firms were grabbing any Trump people
they could find: Jim Murphy, Trump’s former political director, joined the lobbying giant BakerHostetler, while another firm, Fidelis Government Relations, struck up a partnership with Bill Smith, Mike Pence’s former chief of staff.
‘‘If we can get them there, then forever, bad or good, Trump and New Zealand are a co-brand.’’
In the tumult following Trump’s win, Stryk was discovering
that many of his old friends — most of them fellow Washington backbenchers, B-listers and understudies — had vaulted to positions of unexpected influence.
‘‘He thought he could go in’’ — into the White House — ‘‘during the second wave,’’ Bennett said of Lewandowski.
