POISED TO PROFIT: Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump is set to profit from his second administration, Peter Charalambous and Laura Romero report for ABC News. — With Trump in office the first time around, Ballard Partners became a dominant force in Washington and picked up well-established companies like Uber, American Airlines and Amazon.com. — In 2020, Ballard earned more than $24 million in federal domestic lobbying. The firm has also made millions working as agents for foreign countries, including deals to represent Turkey, and embassies for the Republic of Sudan and Japan. While the firm’s growth stalled during President Joe Biden’s term, dropping to around $18 million in federal lobbying revenues in 2021 and 2022, it is well positioned to cash in as Trump returns. — Trump’s inner circle also has ties to the firm. Before his first term, Ballard Partners spent nearly 20 years servicing businesses in Florida — including Trump’s. Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, worked at the firm for eight years. And Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, has been a partner at the firm since 2019. — “As Trump inched closer to the White House over the last year, Ballard Partners also signed high-profile clients with key stakes affected by federal policy, including Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel, whose merger with U.S. Steel is opposed by both Trump and President Joe Biden, and TikTok, which could be banned if its owner does not sell the app to a non-Chinese entity." MORE LAYOFFS DOWNTOWN: AHIP, the largest trade group for health insurers, has laid off some of its employees, our Kelly Hooper reports. “AHIP is constantly assessing organizational needs to ensure we are best positioned to advance the interests of our member companies and those they serve,” Chris Bond, an AHIP spokesperson, said in a statement. — The trade group declined to say what positions or how many employees were laid off — but James Swann, the group’s director of communications and public affairs, said in a post on X that Wednesday was his last day at AHIP after a “layoff.” — Meanwhile PR giant “Edelman has reduced its global workforce by more than 5% — impacting about 330 employees — and will sunset several of its subsidiary boutique agencies,” including its global government and public affairs arm launched just a few years ago, per Axios’ Eleanor Hawkins, as demand grows “for more streamlined, integrated PR support that includes corporate reputation, brand marketing and public affairs.” — “As part of a restructuring, several boutiques within Edelman — Edible, Revere, Salutem, Mustache, EGA and Delta — will shut down. The firm's financial communications boutique Edelman Smithfield, research arm DXI, and experiential marketing firm UEG will remain intact, supporting Edelman and its sister firm, Zeno Group.” — EGA launched in 2021 out of Edelman’s acquisition of the China and Middle East-focused consultancy Basilinna, with the aim of helping businesses, governments and nonprofits navigate immense geopolitical and social upheaval, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the threat of climate change. HOTELS AGITATE FOR JUNK FEE BILL: One of the largest trade groups representing the lodging industry is urging Congress to take aim at so-called junk fees before leaving town for the rest of the year. — In a letter to congressional leaders this week, American Hotel and Lodging Association President and CEO Rosanna Maietta laid out the industry’s top end-of-year priorities, which include the passage of one of two bipartisan bills that would require hotels and third-party booking sites to disclose upfront any mandatory fees they charge. — In addition to fee transparency legislation, Maietta called on lawmakers to pass reforms for the H-2B temporary worker visa program, a bill incentivizing federal workers to stay at hotels with anti-human trafficking programs and legislation boosting the threshold for tax reporting requirements for gig workers, online sellers or those in the short-term rental business. COMING TOGETHER: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos said he is ready to help Trump cut federal regulations and is optimistic about working with the president-elect this term, report Caroline O’Donovan and Laura Wagner for The Washington Post. — The move suggests that Bezos hopes to avoid clashes with Trump like those that prompted him to accuse Amazon.com of paying less than its fair share of taxes. — While speaking at The New York Times DealBook conference yesterday, Bezos said he thinks Trump has a lot of “energy around reducing regulation” and indicated that he wants to help Trump do that if he can. — “Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, said Trump is ‘calmer’ and has ‘grown in the past eight years’ since he was elected president the first time. Asked whether he was concerned about the president-elect’s aggressive stance toward journalists, Bezos said he hopes he can persuade the incoming president that the press is ‘not the enemy.’” LOSING MY RELIGION: The Times’ Danny Hakim reports that Trump “has ‘lost faith’ in the National Rifle Association, according to a top official at the gun organization, who argued in a recent letter to fellow board members that the N.R.A. needed to regroup so that it could help protect the Republican Party’s new edge in Congress in the midterm elections in 2026.” — “Bill Bachenberg, the group’s first vice president and a staunch Trump ally, also told fellow board members that during this year’s election Mr. Trump was upset that the N.R.A. had not committed to doing more to help him win.” — “The letter is the latest evidence of the N.R.A.’s diminished political status. Once among the most influential lobbying forces in Washington, it has been reeling after years of scandal and corruption allegations. The group is divided between loyalists to its former chief executive Wayne LaPierre and another wing, which includes Mr. Bachenberg, that wants to break from Mr. LaPierre’s controversial legacy.” FIRST IN PI — SIGNAL GROUP ADDS 2: Public affairs firm Signal Group has hired Megan Daly as a senior vice president and Lindsey Rickard as an associate with the firm’s paid media team. Daly was most recently director of communications and public affairs at Marathon Strategies and has led in-house comms for entities including the New York City Department of Health, New York City Council, United Sikhs and Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health & Human Rights.
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