Warren Flunks Trump: Report Card Details Broken Promise to 'Drain Swamp'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a former law professor, just flunked President Donald Trump.

"This report makes it clear: Trump's army of lobbyists are more interested in lining the pockets of their long-time employers and corporate buddies than in making life better for working families."
--Sen. Elizabeth Warren"President Trump broke his promise to 'drain the swamp,'" said Warren who, along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and in honor of the president's six months in office, released a report card on Thursday tracking 193 former lobbyists and corporate insiders who have worked for Donald Trump since the election.

"Instead of turning away lobbyists and Washington insiders, he welcomed them into the White House with open arms," Warren said on Facebook. "This report makes it clear: Trump's army of lobbyists are more interested in lining the pockets of their long-time employers and corporate buddies than in making life better for working families."

President Trump's Drain the Swamp Report Card follows a Public Citizen report released Wednesday that details how the president "has fully abandoned populism in favor of giveaways to industry," from automakers and bankers to Big Pharma and fossil fuel companies. Thursday's report concludes "President Trump's grade on his first Drain the Swamp Report Card is a big F."

The report card's four key findings were:

• Trump picked dozens of former lobbyists to fill his transition team and administration: Since his election, at least 160 current and former lobbyists advised or worked for the president.
• Trump has also filled his administration with dozens of corporate insiders: "This report highlights 37 of these swamp-dwellers who either advised the president during the transition period or were hired by or nominated by President Trump to staff his administration"--including the former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn, who now runs the National Economic Council.
• Trump has undermined key ethics rules: After taking office, Trump touted an executive order that he claimed would close "loopholes." However, his order actually weakened rules enacted by former President Barack Obama and enabled more than two dozen former lobbyists to advise or work at agencies they have lobbied within the past two years. The admininstration also uses waivers to work around Trump's executive order.
• Trump's industry insiders have developed policies that harm ordinary Americans: The administration has already supported and enacted policies that favor corporate interests over those of the public. The report describes examples in the Education and Labor Departments and well as the president's Drug Pricing Working Group. It also examines financial policies harmful to retirees, frightening environmental policies, and "a big handout to Wall Street."

As Warren said on Twitter:

In a Facebook video on Thursday, Whitehouse compared Trump to a popular monster truck.

"If you know a little bit about monster trucks, you know that one of them is called 'Swamp Thing'--that's Trump," Whitehouse said. "He is the Swamp Thing, after all those phony promises about draining the swamp. Lobbyists for special interests swarm into Trump administration positions. Special interest billionaires advise the Trump administration in money-making ways and stock the Trump Cabinet....The swamp and its reptiles control the administration."

Watch Whitehouse's address below: