After campaigning on a pledge to "drain the swamp," when Trump took office he signed an executive order that included a 5-year lobbying ban which prevents officials from lobbying the agency they worked for 5 years after leaving office. Of course there were provisions and loopholes, but for the most part, this was a good move.
Then hours before Trump left office, he revoked his own executive order thereby allowing government officials to become lobbyists.
Granted Trump's executive order was largely ineffective in the first place, with at least 33 former administration officials sidestepping the lobbying restrictions according to ProPublica. But by rescinding his ethics order and letting his staffers immediately become lobbyists, the man who pledged to drain the swamp took a giant step to fill it. We know that Trump believes having administration officials turned lobbyists = swampy because he said so when he signed the order.
The White House has been outwardly cavalier about its ethical behavior (having been accused of illegally violating the Hatch Act dozens of times). In an interview with Politico, Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows argued that “nobody outside of the Beltway really cares” about ethics violations. It looks like he's right!
The fact that Trump can have the diehard allegiance of millions despite routinely mocking their intelligence is something I have come to admire, or rather, revere. These low-information sheep don't even realize they should be trying to reconcile this pro swamp move with Mr. Drain the Swamp. They're too deeply invested in this cult of personality to accept how comically absurd it is that they fell for some aristocrat whose lived in a New York City penthouse his whole life being the savior and mouthpiece for the everyday working class American who struggles to put food on the table. These folks actually believe Mr. Silver Spoon whose obsessed with celebrity and riches somehow wouldn't prioritize his crony friends over righteousness. They just can't grasp that Donald Trump is ever a politician (phony, self-aggrandizing and perpetually lying) as there ever was. I'm impressed. There won't be another master manipulator like Trump for a very long time.
