Is Trump Draining The Swamp? President To Attend RNC Spring Retreat, Massive Donor Event

In the late stages of the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump ran largely on the promise that he would "drain the swamp," seizing on the public perspective of special interests paralyzing Washington. On Friday, Trump arrives in Florida—coincidentally home to 11 million acres of wetlands, the most of any state—to appear at the Republican National Committee's Spring retreat, an event massively popular with GOP donors.

Trump is expected to arrive in West Palm Beach, Florida, to deliver a speech to the "who's who" of the GOP at the luxe Four Seasons Resort. It's an event that isn't open to the media or the public.

A number of top officials in the Trump administration are expected to attend, Politico reported. The event represents a major opportunity to fundraise just over a month after Trump took office. The president filed his paperwork for re-election the day of his inauguration, something that former President Barack Obama didn't do until the year before the 2012 race.

The speech is a move to "build the party" and address wealthy donors that largely shied away from backing Trump when he was seeking the Republican nomination. Trump regularly criticized mega-donors during his shocking ascendancy to the White House, even saying, "When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do."

Many of Trump's largest donors, however, have been named or been nominated to serve in his administration, including Andrew Puzder (secretary of labor; $332,000 donation), Linda McMahon (small business administrator; $7.5 million donation), Betsy DeVos (secretary of education; $1.8 million donation), Todd Ricketts (deputy commerce secretary; $1.3 million donation made by his parents), Steven Mnuchin (secretary of treasury; $425,000 donation) and Wilbur Ross (secretary of commerce; $200,000 donated), according to figures reported by the Washington Post.

A number of lobbyists, a group once scorned by Trump, have also been tapped for key roles, especially in his economic policy team. But in the speech to a joint session of Congress this week, Trump touted his five-year ban on lobbying for executive branch officials.

"We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption," he said in his address. It was a comment that elicited laughter from Democrats in the building.