Former Biden administration officials are landing cushy new jobs around Washington, D.C., in the weeks after being replaced by their Trump administration successors.
Ex-Biden officials who worked in the White House, Department of Energy (DOE), Commerce Department and more are now snapping up new gigs at well-heeled law firms, activist groups, universities and other organizations as the new Trump administration takes shape and gets to work. Many of their new employers are the type of powerful institutions that make up “The Swamp,” a term President Donald Trump frequently uses to describe the permanent political class and special interests that collectively exercise massive influence over the U.S. government.
For example, Gina Raimondo, who served in the Biden administration as the Secretary of Commerce, is headed to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she will serve as a distinguished senior fellow. Specifically, she will focus on economic policy and artificial intelligence at CFR while serving as co-chair for the think tank’s new task force on economic security.
Wally Adeyemo, who worked for the Biden administration as deputy treasury secretary and played a key role in shaping the American economic response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will be moving on to greener pastures at Columbia University in New York City, according to his LinkedIn profile. In his new job, Adeyemo will devote most of his attention to matters pertaining to energy and economic policy.
Adeyemo will be joining former Deputy Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small in higher education after serving in the Biden administration. Small is headed to be a fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics through the spring of 2025, where she will be joined by ex-Biden officials like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former Office of Management and Budget Director Sholanda Young.
Former Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) Chief Investment Officer Chris Creed is now working for Galvanize Climate Solutions as a partner and chair of its credit investment committee, according to his LinkedIn. Galvanize Climate Solutions is a climate-focused investment company that was founded by left-wing megadonor and environmentalist Tom Steyer.
While at LPO, Creed oversaw aggressive taxpayer-funded loans for green technology companies, and the office continued to advance multi-billion dollar deals through the lame duck period despite concerns from elected Republicans and the agency’s inspector general that the last-minute loans could put taxpayer dollars at risk.
Two ex-Biden administration officials — Ike Irby and Andrew Bates — are branching out and starting their own companies in Washington in the first post-Biden chapters of their careers. Irby, who served as former Vice President Kamala Harris’ climate advisor before joining her presidential campaign as an advisor, is founding Ike Kirby Strategies, a political consulting shop.
Bates, formerly a senior deputy press secretary in the Biden White House, is starting up Wolfpack Strategies, a company that will focus on strategic communications for its clients. In his time at the White House, Bates was a vocal opponent of claims that the president was not fit to execute the duties of his office, even though those concerns ultimately led to Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.
Meanwhile, Rob Shriver — former acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for the Biden administration — joined Democracy Forward in January as a managing director, per his LinkedIn. Democracy Forward is a legal organization chaired by Democrat election attorney Marc Elias and funded by numerous left-wing nonprofits that repeatedly sued to impede the first Trump administration’s agenda; the organization is doing more of the same so far in the second Trump term.
Kyleigh Russ, a former senior advisor for OPM who joined the office in 2022, is joining Shriver at Democracy Forward, where she will work as a director of its “good government initiatives” and as a senior advisor, according to her LinkedIn.
Russ and Shriner are not the only Biden administration veterans moving on to work for activist groups.
Former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracey Stone-Manning is poised to take over as president of the Wilderness Society. While running BLM, Stone-Manning helped the Biden administration crack down on fossil fuel-related activity on federally-controlled lands, a position her new employer also endorses.
Meanwhile, Josh Dickson — who served as a special assistant to Biden and as deputy chief of staff for former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff — is now working for United Way as a senior vice president of public policy and advocacy, according to his LinkedIn. Lee Slater, a staffer in the Biden White House who worked as the deputy director of the legislative affairs office, is now working as a senior vice president of government affairs at the American Investment Council, a major trade group representing the interests of private equity firms, his LinkedIn shows.
Additionally, Reuters reported that numerous Biden administration attorneys serving in the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and elsewhere found employment at elite law firms in Manhattan and Washington after Inauguration Day.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Photo/Jesse Collins/Wikimedia Commons)
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