# 2025 Record Lobbying Year Federal lobbying spending hit a record **~$5.3 billion in 2025** — the largest annual total in U.S. history — in the first year of the [[Second Trump Administration]]. The headline number matters less than its distribution: while the whole industry grew, the gains concentrated dramatically in firms with personal ties to Trump's circle. ## The shape of the record Spending surged across trade, energy, taxation, and especially health, as corporations and foreign governments scrambled to navigate tariffs, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and an administration that conspicuously rewarded proximity. The bipartisan giants grew respectably — [[Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld]] (~$65.3M, +15%), [[Holland & Knight]] (~$54.6M, +10%), a record quarter at [[Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck]] — but the Trump-world cluster exploded: - [[Ballard Partners]]: ~$88M, +350%, including the largest single quarter in lobbying history (~$25M in Q3) — the new #1 firm in DC - [[Miller Strategies]]: ~$35.6M through Q3, +180% - [[Continental Strategy]]: ~$27.4M, +1,400% - [[Checkmate Government Relations]]: ~$22M, from a $70K base — effectively a debut year The four close-to-Trump firms collectively earned more than $125 million through Q3 — over three and a half times their combined 2024 total. ## Why it matters for this KB The record year is the clearest quantitative evidence of the [[Revolving Door]] thesis the [[Lobbying]] layer tracks: when access itself is the product, an administration run by former lobbying partners ([[Susie Wiles]], [[Pam Bondi]]) converts political loyalty directly into market share for the firms they came from. It is the influence-industry counterpart of the crypto and defense-tech conflicts mapped elsewhere in the vault. ## See also [[Lobbying Hub]] · [[Lobbying]] · [[Revolving Door]] · [[Campaign Finance]]