President-elect Trump has selected yet another revolving-door corporate lobbyist for his cabinet.
On Tuesday evening, Trump announced he has chosen Jamieson Greer to serve as the next United States Trade Representative (USTR), a cabinet-level position that advises the president on trade matters and negotiates foreign trade deals. Greer was chief of staff to USTR Robert Lighthizer during the first Trump administration.
According to a bio filed with U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), Jamieson was "deeply involved in the Administration’s implementation of tariffs on China and subsequent negotiations on the U.S.-China Phase One trade agreement," as well as being "a critical part of USTR’s efforts to negotiate and obtain Congressional approval of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement."
Immediately upon exiting the administration in 2020, Greer took a job as partner with the King & Spalding law firm, where he serves on the International Trade team, with clients from the pharmaceutical, energy, financial and investment services, and defense companies. Greer’s practice “is focused on helping companies use international trade laws and policies to achieve geopolitically sustainable business models,” according to the USCC bio.
Since registering as a lobbyist in October 2022, Greer has lobbied both chambers of Congress and the USTR office for WebuildUS, a subsidiary of a large Italian construction firm. According to disclosures filed with the Senate, he has lobbied regarding “Issues relating to Investment Arbitration Enforcement.”
The company’s Italian group Webuild SpA is a contractor on the mega-project Neom being developed in Saudi Arabia, where in January the company inked a contract worth $4.7 billion, including for construction of three dams to form a freshwater lake. According to a documentary from the British network ITV, 21,000 migrant workers have died in Saudi Arabia in Neom’s construction, with some 20,000 indigenous people from Tabuk Province forcibly removed.
King & Spalding has dozens of federal lobbying clients, including Genetech, Comcast, Sumitomo Chemical, Becton, Dickinson and Company, and Atara Biotherapeutics.
Greer is the latest of several corporate lobbyists who Trump has selected for his cabinet, including his Transportation secretary pick Sean Duffy, his attorney general pick Pam Bondi, and his chief of staff selection Susie Wiles.
On the campaign trail, Trump railed against revolving door lobbyists having access to presidents and other policymakers.
“Well, you have to stop listening to lobbyists,” Trump said during an August 20 appearance on the Theo Von podcast. “You know, I was not a big person for lobbyists. And if they have even a little access to like a president or a senator or a congressman or woman [...] they get a lot of money.”
