Transport Nominee Sean Duffy Lobbied for Companies Against Trump's Positions

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Sean Duffy, the nominee for secretary of the Department of Transportation, previously lobbied on behalf of interests that were at odds with some of President-elect Donald Trump's positions.

On Monday, Trump announced his nomination of Duffy, a Fox Business host and former Wisconsin representative, amid a flurry of other Cabinet nominees and appointments he has made since winning the 2024 presidential election.

In a statement announcing Duffy's appointment, Trump described him as a "tremendous and well-liked public servant." After leaving Congress in 2019, Duffy joined the lobbying firm BGR Group, where he worked for two clients in apparent opposition to policy initiatives Trump had backed, Senate lobbying disclosures showed. BGR confirmed to Newsweek that Duffy no longer worked at the company but made no further comment.

His lobbying against Trump's interests was unusual given their political kinship, said Meghan Faulkner, the director of communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has been strongly critical of Trump. Its website described him as "the most corrupt president in American history," and it sued Trump on his previous administration's first day in office.

Sean Duffy
Wisconsin Representative Sean Duffy on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2018. While working as a lobbyist for BGR Group, Duffy represented firms that worked against Donald Trump's interests. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File

Newsweek has contacted Duffy, representatives for Trump and the companies mentioned in this article for comment.

Disclosures from 2019 to 2023 named Duffy as a lobbyist for Polaris, an American automotive manufacturer that imports components from foreign countries, including China, to make all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and other vehicles. Duffy and Polaris lobbied against Trump tax credits and trade policies that affected the company.

In March 2019, Trump proposed eliminating a $7,500 tax credit on the purchase of new electric vehicles, and his 2024 transition team is renewing these efforts, Reuters reported.

Trump also imposed tariffs on Chinese imports during his first administration and has pledged to increase tariffs in his second term, including a universal tariff of at least 10 percent on all imports.

In a lobbying report that named Duffy, the section for Polaris' specific lobbying issues said, "Provide strategic counsel and advocacy on support for tax credits for non-road vehicles and other issues impacting the Company."

Another report highlighted the specific lobbying issues as being "EV incentives and 301 tariff action." Section 301 tariffs are imposed on foreign goods from countries the U.S. deems to be engaging in unfair trade practices.

A 2020 ProPublica report said Duffy also lobbied Trump's White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on tariffs' effects on Polaris.

There is no evidence Duffy is against tariffs on principle. He earned praise from Trump in 2019 when he introduced the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act—which, had it passed, would have expanded presidential powers to impose tariffs on foreign countries.

Duffy also lobbied for the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, which acted on behalf of the Venezuela Creditor Committee from 2022 to 2023, disclosures showed.

The committee is a group of bondholders trying to restructure more than $10 billion of defaulted bonds issued by Venezuela's government and some of its state-owned entities.

In May 2018, Trump banned purchasing debts owed to Venezuela, and in August 2019, he imposed further sanctions on the Venezuelan government, banning transactions with the country to put pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, who has been accused of human rights violations. These measures made it difficult to restructure the debt.

The disclosure's section for specific lobbying issues said, "Provide strategic counsel and advocacy related to Venezuelan-U.S. investment and financial related issues."

While this is not evidence that Duffy specifically lobbied against Trump's sanctions policy, the policy hindered the Venezuela Creditor Committee's ability to restructure the debt, multiple sanctions experts confirmed to Newsweek.

Faulkner said: "Sean Duffy's past lobbying work appears to contradict Donald Trump's positions on several issues, like EV subsidies and the Venezuela Creditor Committee bond, which is somewhat unusual."

Duffy's appointment has also raised conflict-of-interest questions regarding lobbying rules. In his first three years in office, Trump appointed more ex-lobbyists to Cabinet-level positions than Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did during their eight years in office.

In January 2017, Trump signed an executive order barring administration officials from lobbying the executive agency they had worked in for five years after leaving office. Officials could lobby other areas. In January 2021, he revoked the rule.

President Joe Biden then signed an ethics order barring government employees from communicating with people at their former federal agencies for two years after leaving office and banning behind-the-scenes advising, such as advising others who lobby government officials. He also barred registered lobbyists from working for agencies they lobbied for two years.

Faulkner said these rules could affect Duffy. "It's unclear what, if any, vetting process Trump's nominees have been subject to, and whether they'll be subject to an ethics executive order upon confirmation and what that would look like," she said.

"If Trump does sign an executive order on ethics similar to the one from his first term, Duffy would likely be barred from participating in EV subsidy matters or Venezuela sanctions matters if he was registered within two years for Polaris or the Venezuela Creditor Committee. But right now, we have no clear picture of how the incoming Trump administration may deal with potential conflicts for Duffy or any other nominees."

James Thurber, a public affairs professor at American University in Washington, D.C., who specializes in politics and lobbying, told Newsweek that Duffy was "a walking conflict of interest."

He added: "Here we go again with Trump appointing lobbyists to departments where they have advocated for major special interests. What happened to the public interest?"

Thurber said that even though Duffy's lobbying clients were not directly related to the transport industry, the indirect relationship was important. "It's just not a good idea," he said.

Duffy also lobbied for Diem, a failed Facebook-funded cryptocurrency; the analytics and artificial intelligence software company SAS Institute; the insurance firm MetLife Services and Solutions; and the accounting firm Marcum LLP.

Besides Duffy, Trump has tapped another former Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, for defense secretary. Other high-profile nominations include former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct, for attorney general and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Duffy, a former professional lumberjack athlete, also starred in the MTV reality series Real World in the '90s. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

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