John Oliver on draining the swamp on Last Week Tonight

On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver wonders if Trump has really drained the swamp for the past two years. Has Trump’s campaign promise been fulfilled?

It is, alas, time again to talk about Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight. However, while it might be entertaining or darkly cathartic to talk about the dumbest parts of Trump’s career — like when he won a Razzie in 1991 for a supporting role in Ghosts Can’t Do It — host John Oliver wanted to take on something a little more serious.

This year marks the two-year anniversary of his promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. “We’re going to have fun doing it, and we’re all doing it together,” he told a crowd at one particular rally.

The evidence is not forthcoming, though. What, exactly, has Trump done to drain the swamps of the nation’s capital?

Surprise: it’s not much. Gary Cohn and Steve Mnuchin, two “swamp creatures” in Oliver’s words, are still part of Trump’s cabinet. Indeed, he has a “laughable number” of rich business people in his orbit. There are so many that you might start to wonder who has been appointed by the president but isn’t somehow morally corrupt or in the pocket of at least a large company or two.

Self-enrichment is part of the problem, but so, too, is the harm that all of this can do to everyone else. For example, Mick Mulvaney, currently head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has been working very closely with payday loan companies. You may remember Oliver’s own segment on the damage done by payday loans, aired in 2014. Mulvaney also blatantly said that he won’t talk to lobbyists who don’t pay up. It’s a given, sure, but it is still strange to hear it said out loud.

Swamplands at the EPA

For another example, let’s turn to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It was formerly run by Scott Pruitt, who was so obvious with his corruption that he actually lost his job.

Nearly half of the EPA appointees have industry connections. Pruitt’s replacement, Andrew Wheeler, was a coal lobbyist. “It’s like handing your city’s waste management over to a seagull,” said Oliver.

Wheeler isn’t the only one. Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, is another example. He’s taken 66 days of personal leave and has already been the subject of 15 investigations. Even if he’s ousted, though, there are many opportunities for corruption at his massive Department.

Look at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which is involved with oil rig safety. 2010 was pretty bad for it, thanks to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. That rig pumped 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with lasting environmental consequences.

Scott Angelle

Before Deepwater Horizon, the Minerals Management Service was in charge of both oil rig safety and collecting revenue. BSEE was created after the disaster, as a regulatory body meant only to overlook the safety issue. In the past, leaders of the agency have been marine safety experts. Trump’s appointment here is Scott Angelle, who’s served on the board of Sunoco and generally gotten very comfy with oil companies.

It’s hard to understate just how friendly Angelle is towards oil execs. He’s even given out his work cell phone number to industry leaders, encouraging them to call instead of texting. Texts, you see, are a matter of public record. Angelle has even announced that phone number from the stage at some events.

Weird, then, how Angelle has lobbied for decreased regulations, which could then save the industry nearly a billion dollars over the next few years.

So, it’s pretty clear that Trump has not done anything substantial to drain the swamp. Instead, it was a phrase that, despite Trump’s own initial resistance, caught on with voters and fellow politicians. Is there anything out there who still thinks that Trump will actually do anything to “drain the swamp”? At this point, said Oliver, “The EPA might as well be run by a sentient piece of coal.”