lvgaldieriThe Bernhardt Group’s Lobbying for Antofagasta’s Copper and Nickel Mine on the Edge of the Boundary Waters, Q3 2025
The Bernhardt Group, the lobbying shop set up just down the street from the White House by Trump’s former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, is now the sole firm lobbying for Antofagasta’s Twin Metals project on the edge of the Boundary Waters (as I noted back in July). The Group’s third quarter disclosure reports income of $110,000 for lobbying on “mine leasing issues” on behalf of Twin Metals. That’s more than double The Bernhardt Group’s Twin Metals Q2 2025 income ($40K), and toward the high end of what other clients pay per quarter.
Bernhardt’s firm has been lobbying for the Twin Metals project in both the House and the Senate and at the White House, the Department of the Interior, and, notably, DOJ. (I am a little surprised that there is no mention here of the Department of Agriculture.) At DOJ, The Bernhardt Group was likely helping to devise and coordinate the legal strategy that saw the federal government do an about-face, join forces with Twin Metals, and get the case before the DC District Court put on ice.
It’s worth reading this latest disclosure in light of a piece by Brendan Bordelon, Amanda Chu, and Caitlin Oprysko that appeared a couple of days ago in Politico, about the reduced influence of non-Trump affiliated lobbying firms and the concentration of lobbying in one place: the presidency. The article offers a K-Street perspective on Congress’ abdication, the destruction of the administrative state, and the rise of a corrupt personalist regime.
The president and a handful of lieutenants have seized full control over policies once considered the remit of Congress and experts at agencies, including hyperspecific issues like tariff rates, high-skilled visa fees and funding freezes. Trump’s gravitational pull has forced CEOs to act as their companies’ top lobbyists, plying the president with gifts and concessions to secure their policy priorities. [emphasis mine]
Let’s pause here for clarification. These policies were not just “once considered the remit of Congress and experts at agencies.” They are lawfully the remit of Congress, but Congress remains supine or, worse, bent over and taking it. Meanwhile, the administration is ridding itself of all those pesky experts at the agencies and conducting sloppy and unlawful “reviews” of its own, as the Department of Agriculture recently did with the Rainy River watershed withdrawal.
Politico puts it more politely than I ever could, but the thrust of the reporting here is no less troubling. As Sam Bagenstos remarked yesterday, “per [Politico], the lobbyists are basically treating Article I as dead.”
The new dynamic has transformed the business of Washington influence, shutting out many veteran lobbyists and excluding even longtime experts from the most important policy fights in Washington. With Congress and the agencies often sidelined, outside lobbying firms and in-house specialists — many with decades of policy experience and cross-party relationships — are declining in importance….
The legislative branch is losing importance as Republicans — in charge of both chambers — take their cues from the White House to a degree that’s unprecedented in modern politics.
“Congress has basically taken itself out of the equation,” said Rich Gold, a Democrat who heads lobbying and law firm Holland & Knight’s public policy and regulation group. “There is a perception that Democrats have not fought back, and Republicans have basically ceded all their authority to the president.”
The same is true at federal agencies, which once operated more independently but are now closely responsive to the president himself.
From K Street’s point of view, there’s only one lever consistently worth pulling — and it sits in the Oval Office.
But rest assured: the lobbying world is adapting.
Despite the upheaval on K Street, Washington’s lobbying sector is on track to earn more money than in any year since 2010, adjusted for inflation — driven by corporations’ mix of enthusiasm and concern about what Trump is doing.
That revenue is flowing away from established firms with policy expertise and robust networks of cross-party contacts, and toward a handful of rising firms able to open the Oval Office door.
The Bernhardt Group is, of course, one such firm.
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#abdication #corruption #governmentCapture #governmentCollapse #kleptocracy #lobbying #personalistRegime #resourceHoarding #Water
Louis V. Galdieri