Every day, there seems to be a new bombshell
coming from the Trump administration,
so we thought we'd take a break
from the breaking news of the day
and check in on one of President Trump's
campaign promises,
specifically, his promise to drain the swamp.
This is, "The Check In."
[ Bell dings ]
-President Trump made a lot of promises
throughout his campaign,
and, in general, he kept them very simple,
as evidenced by their ability
to be expressed in three-syllable chants.
Let's see. There was this one.
There was this one.
-There was this one, that Trump tried to start,
but it never really took off.
[ Laughter ]
But there was one chant that really summed up
the mission statement of the Trump campaign.
-We are going to drain the swamp.
-Drain the swamp!
Drain the swamp!
-And that clip really speaks to how little a plan he had
to actually drain the swamp.
He said it and just wandered off.
[ Laughter ]
"How?!"
[ Laughter ]
Because when it came time for candidate Trump
to clearly define which policies he would put in place
to drain the Washington, D.C., swamp
of insiders, lobbyist, and special interest groups,
he instead opted for this thorough explanation
of how the catchphrase came to be in the first place.
-When I first heard that term, I hated it.
I said, "Oh, that's so hokey.
That is so hokey."
But I said, "Look, let's give it a shot."
I tried it -- the place went crazy.
Then I said, "Maybe we'll try it again."
The place went crazy.
And now I like it.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You know, great, great singers.
A lot of great artists, great singers -- Frank Sinatra.
So Frank Sinatra didn't like "My Way" when he first sang it.
And then he noticed the audience liked it a lot.
And then it went out, became number one, like, big.
And all of a sudden,
he started to love that song, "My Way," right?
So, drain the swamp.
-Hey, Donald, here's my Frank Sinatra story.
I went to the doctor because I had a rash,
and he told me it's because "I got you under my skin."
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
Now, of course, the problem
with the Trump analogy is that Sinatra
was singing a song in hopes that people would like it,
whereas Trump was making a promise
that he would have to follow through on,
and so far, he has not.
-Is now-President Trump draining the swamp
or stocking it with a whole bunch of new critters?
The administration has made a number of hires
who are advising or leading the agencies
they targeted as lobbyists just a short time ago.
-As it turns out, big-money contributions
from friendly donors to the president's inaugural committee
are paying off for them.
Coal magnate and energy executive, Christopher Cline,
gave $1 million, as well.
Trump overturned many Obama-era energy regulations.
That's cute.
-Trump is not draining the swamp.
Nope.
He's inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters
in the front door,
and he's turning them loose on our government
and on our economy.
-So it seems a more accurate three-word campaign promise
would have been "Run! Swamp monsters!"
[ Laughter ]
Now, Trump did sign an executive order ban on lobbying
shortly after he took office,
which probably would've been good policy
if it were actually enforced.
But according to reports,
at least nine people who worked on Trump's transition
have already registered as lobbyists
because of loopholes in the ban.
Meaning, they can now cash in privately
for whatever work they did in the government --
the exact thing Trump promised to avoid.
And to make matters worse,
it's not just people leaving the government
who are taking jobs they probably shouldn't.
According to reports, the White House is issuing
secret waivers to the president's own ethics rules,
allowing incoming officials to work on issues
they handled before becoming public servants.
Under the Obama administration, such waivers were made public
on a White House website.
But we checked that page under the Trump administration,
and there you go.
It's still completely blank.
Other blank White House web pages include
Court Cases Trump Won...
Kellyanne Conway's Honest Statements...
and Melania's Favorite Things To Do in D.C.
[ Laughter ]
And these things shouldn't be that difficult
for the president to fix.
Because besides actually enforcing his own ban,
Trump could also expand the definition of "lobbyist,"
because there's another pre-existing loophole
that basically says former administration officials
can call themselves consultants instead.
So you can just change the name and get away with it.
Try that some time.
"No, officer, I'm not a drug dealer.
I'm a freelance pharmaceutical consultant."
[ Laughter ]
"Richard, I'm not cheating on you.
Kevin is my extramarital copulation advisor."
[ Laughter ]
So, as usual with Trump, his insistence
on changing the way Washington works was overhyped.
Mainly just empty promises and all talk.
In other words...
-That is so hokey.
-This has been "The Check In."
[ Cheers and applause ]