With Daniel Lippman WELL, THAT WAS QUICK: In a surprising turn of events, it took only hours for Donald Trump to emerge victorious in his bid for a second term in the White House, setting off a scramble on K Street to start gaming out what the election results hold in store for their clients and who will wield power in Washington next year. — “We know that Howard Lutnick is probably the most popular man in Washington today,” Eugenia Pierson , who chairs the legislative and public policy practice at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, said of Trump’s transition co-chair. — One of K Street’s goals over the next few weeks is determining what exactly Trump’s policy agenda will look like before clients can be expected to react to it, Pierson said, as well as how decentralized or insular the second Trump administration will be. “Who is driving the policy agenda is still sort of a big question for us,” she said. — Lobbyists are also working to separate what’s “speculation” versus legitimate intel on who will make up Trump’s Cabinet, said Will Moschella, co-chair of the government relations practice at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. — Any new administration will nearly always translate to a boon for K Street. But last night’s elections have the very real possibility of ushering in complete GOP control of Washington — with Republicans flipping the Senate and potentially hanging on to a (diminished) majority in the House — boosting those prospects further as corporate clients angle to capitalize on the governing trifecta. — There’s a lot riding on the latter question. “The outcome of the majority, and what that majority looks like … is going to be pretty consequential” in determining what the lame duck looks like, Pierson said. It could also factor into which executive orders Trump pumps out from Day One. — But any size majority in the House would also unlock lawmakers’ ability to use the reconciliation process to push legislation through on a party-line vote — with huge ramifications for next year’s tax fight — as well as the use of the Congressional Review Act to discard any number of late-breaking Biden administration regulations. That clarity will also inform strategic decisions about reaching out to Trump’s transition team on behalf of clients. — “We don't tend to want to talk to those folks till we know what it is we're talking about, and where we want to take that long term,” added Kevin O’Neill, a partner at Arnold & Porter. While Pierson told PI some clients have “proactive” agenda items that make sense to engage the transition in these early days, that might not always translate to success. — “History from the first term shows that it's better to be the last person to talk to the president than the first person,” said O’Neill. — Beyond that, lobbyists are expecting rosier prospects for rolling back drug-pricing measures from the Inflation Reduction Act, expansions for the fossil fuel industry and a boost for the defense industry, along with curbing regulations across the board. — “Typically, a second-term president spends more of their political capital abroad,” O’Neill said, arguing that poses “a really big opportunity for the defense industry to get a lot of new things to help rearm the United States and prepare for potential conflict in the Pacific, or [a] next-generation conflict.” Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Send lobbying and transition intel: coprysko@politico.com . And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. CRYPTO’S BIG PAYOFF: “The crypto industry treated this year’s election as a pivotal moment, spending tens of millions of dollars to support candidates who favored softer regulations for the sector,” The New York Times’ David Yaffe-Bellany writes, with industry-funded super PACs Fairshake, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs pouring around $135 million into congressional races. — “The effort amounted to one of the most aggressive corporate spending sprees in modern political history, experts said. And it appears to have paid off handsomely.” — According to a tracker run by advocacy group Stand With Crypto , “253 pro-crypto candidates had been elected to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, compared with 115 anti-crypto candidates. In the Senate, 16 pro-crypto candidates and 12 anti-crypto candidates were elected, the tracker said.” A LINGERING MUSK: “Elon Musk on Tuesday signaled that he plans to remain a major player in American politics even after the 2024 election,” Business Insider’s Bryan Metzger writes. “At the end of an X Spaces on Tuesday evening, Musk told listeners that America PAC, the super PAC that the billionaire businessman has funded with at least $119 million, will ‘keep going after this election.’” — “Musk said his super PAC was ‘preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections, as well as looking at elections at the district attorney level.’ America PAC has spent more than $152 million on the presidential election, according to the latest filings. It's also spent more than $19 million boosting GOP candidates in 18 competitive House races around the country.” WHAT IT ALL MEANS: “At a raucous election-night gathering on Tuesday,” Musk sat seats away from Trump, “ready to claim wide credit for his decisive presidential win,” the Times’ Teddy Schleifer and Susanne Craig write. — “His victory lap was the culmination of an effort that began only six months ago and depended on a risky gamble: Mr. Musk’s new super PAC effectively led Mr. Trump’s get-out-the-vote operation in battleground states — and Mr. Trump entrusted a crucial campaign function to a political neophyte.” — “It is difficult to disentangle Mr. Musk’s groundwork from other influences that propelled Mr. Trump to the White House. But there is little doubt that the election was a win not only for Mr. Musk but also big-money politics: An ultra-wealthy donor took advantage of America’s evolving campaign finance system to put his thumb on the scale like never before.” RELATED READ: “A super PAC affiliated with billionaire businessman Charles Koch and his late brother, David Koch, has spent roughly $160 million this election cycle boosting Republicans,” per Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky, marking a new record for Americans for Prosperity Action. — The spending was “largely made to support GOP House and Senate candidates through canvassing, digital advertisements, mailers, and other campaign-related services, according to Federal Election Commission filings. AFP Action’s spending has more than tripled since 2020, when it dropped $47.7 million, whereas the Koch-linked group spent $70 million in 2022.” KISSINGER’S HAUL: Documents quietly filed last year related to the estate of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger are shedding light for the first time on the personal fortune amassed by the divisive diplomat before his death at the age of 100, James Mann and Hailey Fuchs report for POLITICO Magazine. — The documents estimate Kissinger accumulated a net worth of at least $80 million “during the four decades that he ran his controversial consulting firm, Kissinger Associates. The firm, which was the first in what eventually became an industry in which former government officials leveraged contacts forged in public life to serve private clients, was especially active in arranging entrée for private business executives and their companies to China.” — “In fact, Kissinger’s net worth at the time of his death was likely much higher than that; the $80 million estimate included his financial investments and cash but did not include his home in northwestern Connecticut, his apartment in midtown Manhattan or his shares in his consulting business.” SPOTTED at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's election day celebration at Balos Estiatorio, per a tipster: Hunter Bates, Brian Pomper, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Anna Abram, Ed Pagano, Hans Rickhoff, Zach Rudisill, Chris Treanor, Jamie Tucker, Geoff Verhoff, Clete Willems and Ryan Ellis of Akin, along with clients and friends of the firm from the Hill and the administration, as well as from Adobe, Alliance for Automotive Innovation, American Airlines, BIO, Business Roundtable, Chubb, Dell, DoorDash, Entergy, Genentech, KKR, L'Oreal USA, Motion Picture Association, NCTA, NextEra Energy, Philip Morris International, SAP, Siemens, Snap, Stanley Black & Decker, The Carlyle Group and Gap.
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