Jan 23, 2025 · The new chief of staff for Trump’s USDA, which oversees federal nutrition guidelines, has a lobbying background that may conflict with the mission to “Make America Healthy Again.” The Instagram and Facebook parent company spent $24.4 million on lobbying last year as lawmakers banned its rival ...

20 hours ago · During his campaign to return to the White House, Donald Trump made a heavy appeal to oil and gas industry executives, asking them during an April dinner at Mar-a-Lago to raise $1 billion for him with the expectation that he would roll back environmental regulations. Donors in the fossil fuel ...

Sludge is a daily newsletter that strives to give our readers urgent, accurate, in-depth information about how moneyed interests are shaping politics. We don’t accept the narratives that are put forward by establishment media or political parties, we dig into the primary sources, disclosures, and data to give you

Jan 20, 2025 · One of the names being floated for the Trump administration’s next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Melissa Holyoak, a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, previously worked as an attorney for an industry-funded think tank that is fighting the agency’s plans to protect consumers against tech companies like Meta and Google.

Nov 5, 2024 · Donald Trump dances off stage at the conclusion of a campaign rally on Nov. 4, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Oct 24, 2024 · There have been a lot of important money-in-politics stories this year that Sludge was the first, or only, newsroom to cover. We were… The first to list all of AIPAC’s contributions to members of Congress and candidates; The first and only to tally all the dark money backing both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s campaigns; The first and only to …

Investigative journalism on money in politics

Aug 16, 2024 · The federal lawmakers who Sludge found have revealed violating the STOCK Act so far this month are senators John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), plus representatives Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Thomas Kean Jr. …

Dec 11, 2024 · A Sludge data analysis shows how much money the six largest American oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron spent on federal politics during 2023-24. Unbeknownst to voters, Trump's top super PAC received a total of $62 million in the weeks before Election Day from a dark money group whose leader ...

Dec 5, 2024 · Trump Raises Massive Legal War Chest for Post-Election Fights. Trump and the RNC have a far larger legal fund than their Democratic counterpart, though the Harris campaign will likely end the election with more cash on hand.