Former Vice President Mike Pence‘s conservative nonprofit foundation, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), released a report this week titled ‘Protectionism Serves the Swamp,’ which argues against President Trump’s tariff policies.
[Note: Several economists — both liberal and conservative — have criticized President Trump for claiming that his tariff-based trade wars have helped bring $18 trillion in foreign investments to the U.S.]
As seen below, the AAF report revealed that tariff lobbying contracts are up nearly 500% from last year — “496% increase in tariff lobbying revenues in Q4 2025 compared to Q4 2024.”
“K Street loves tariffs, Main Street hates them,” the report reads. AAF Chair Marc Short added, “Not exactly Draining the Swamp.”
[NOTE: Bloomberg reports that Ballard Partners, among the winners with ties to the Trump administration, “is the new leader on K Street” with a “list of clients ranging from Netflix Inc. to Harvard” accounting for “more than $88 million in 2025.”]
Not exactly Draining The Swamp https://t.co/4qwg4ygzK9
— Marc Short (@marctshort) January 29, 2026
The AAF report claims that $288 billion in tariffs has coincided with a loss of 72,000 American manufacturing jobs. The CATO Institute puts the figure of lost American manufacturing jobs under Trump 2.0 at “nearly 70,000,” continuing what it called a “period of persistent decline.”
AAF warns in conclusion, “Americans — not foreign countries — pay tariffs, and tariffs are holding back American jobs and the free enterprise system that makes America great.”
Note: The report was authored by former Heritage Foundation economist Rachel Greszler, now Senior Research Fellow at the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at AAF. Prior to her 12 years at the Heritage Foundation, Greszler served for seven years as a senior economist on the staff of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.
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