Trump's return to office mandate helps make lobbying firms tied to him top performers in 2026
Among the list of top revenue earning lobbying firms mentioned in the link are Ballard Partners LLC, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, BGR Government Affairs LLC, and Miller Strategies LLC. Each firm has high-ranking alumni such as White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, Trent Morse, a former senior associate at Ballard Partners, now Deputy Director of the Presidential Personnel Office, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and senior political strategist Jason Miller who were directly embedded in the White House, agency leadership, and legal teams tasked with executing and enforcing the administration's strict five-day return-to-office mandate.
The remaining top earning firms from the list saw substantial revenue growth from corporate clients navigating the administration's return to office policy shift. Although there are no obvious high ranking people explicitly leading the RTO enforcement from these organizations, there are several alumni from these firms who were interwoven into the administration to navigate this mandate in some capacity. Bottom line is these firms had heavy interest in implementing the RTO mandate and were very pleased with the resulting financial gains for themselves and their clients.
I think most federal employees know this by now, but this is just another way to show that the RTO mandate was not enforced for the sake of efficiency or for the good of the American people, rather, it was set up to help those who have private interest in making working people miserable. To further aggravate negative feelings behind this corrupt reality, I am seeing too many articles online trying to convince the people that RTO is good for you. These articles claim that RTO is not only good for the narcissistic managers who thrive on being seen and talking down to people, it's in fact good for everyone's health. These orange man approved articles go on with some bullshit about how working from home is lonely and creates silos in organizations.
When my employer actually honored what they
offered me, my team was dispersed across several states and I can honestly say that I never had been part of a team that collaborated more than my virtual one. They cannot gaslight me into thinking RTO is better for everyone's health when it has only caused my mental health to suffer. RTO is not a trend because they don't want people to feel lonely. Don't twist the narrative around and try to make us all feel like this is best for us when alot of people have actually experienced severe mental health declines because of their self serving fulltime RTO mandate.
This administration has so rudely coined themselves "true patriots" and talked alot while campaigning about how America was built from from the power residing in local communities and that this power should be given back to the people and the states, BUT this RTO literally does the opposite of all that. They are forcing us into selected HUBs to work in the cities they choose so we can spend money at their friends restaurants and make their real estate bros happy to see their investments rebound. That's all it is. It's not to save the ma and pa shops from covid damage as they have spewed before.
If these so called "true patriots" in charge were all about bringing power back to the people then why are they ignoring what the people actually want. The administrator of GSA, Ed Forst, former real estate fortune 500 company exec, literally laughed out loud at a town hall about receiving tons of questions asking if people will ever be able to go back to the telework agreements they were offered when they took their positions. As they like to say over and over again, "That should tell the people everything they need to know."
If these "true patriots" really believe that America was built by the people and power within local communities, then why are they forcing us all out of our communities to go to a metro area they chose for their gains? What if I would rather spend money on coffee in my hometown rather than spend $15 in the city? Who are they to tell me where to spend my money? The administration won votes by saying "government got too big and those evil democrats and deep state are trying to take away all your freedoms and control every aspect of your life". The founding fathers likely wouldn't be on board with having corporate overlords be in charge of everything and calling all the shots either.
GSA's A suite is stacked with former high level professionals from real estate corporations and investment groups. Nobody's making decisions to empower local communities or the people, they are only making decisions to empower their insatiable upper class friends. RTO was enforced only to appease greedy investors who got cranky about not making as much as they would have liked. Lobbyists tied to this administration are making bank off this regressive madate. RTO is no more than just another bailout, so they can fuck off with their "oh no, this is all just for your own good" bullshit!!!! source