Trump has broken his promise to drain the swamp and instead filled it with his own administration’s corruption – and perhaps nobody personifies that better than Mick Mulvaney. Editorial boards across the country agree:

New York Times Editorial: “Trump’s ‘Best People’ Are The Worst.”

“At a speech before the American Bankers Association on Tuesday, Mr. Mulvaney said that as a congressman he would only meet with lobbyists who gave money to his campaign. He also encouraged bankers — many of whom have given generously to him — to let their needs be known to lawmakers. Mr. Mulvaney was just making old friends happy. He did that for years as a congressman, defending bankers and fending off consumer protection. Since he took over the consumer agency that Congress created after the financial crisis, he has been working overtime to gut it for his pals.”

Washington Post Editorial: “Mick Mulvaney Personifies Pay-To-Play.”

“Mr. Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, as well as interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told a group of bankers on Tuesday that he had a specific litmus test for lobbyists who wanted to see him while he served in the House, from 2011 to 2017. The rule was: He would not meet those who did not make campaign contributions to him, and he might meet those who did … Mulvaney’s confession parallels precisely the mind-set of the president. ‘As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do,’ Mr. Trump told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. ‘As a businessman, I need that.’ Later that year, he elaborated: ‘I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me.’”

Los Angeles Times Editorial: “Mick Mulvaney’s Message To Bankers: You Have To Pay To Play.”

“Mulvaney — who in his spare time serves as the architect of the White House's disastrous, debt-crazed budget policy — has emphasized the importance of humility when it comes to the bureau's regulatory authority. But his endorsement of pay-to-play politics and his ham-handed reversals of the bureau's operations are anything but humble. The bureau will be lucky to survive his tenure.”

San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial: “Drain – Don’t Explain – The Swamp In D.C.”

“Cynicism about politics is so common that it takes something truly outrageous to make the average American wince. But that’s just what Mick Mulvaney, the Trump White House’s budget chief and the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, managed to pull off Tuesday. In a speech to the American Bankers Association, Mulvaney said that when he was a congressman, he would only meet with lobbyists who weren’t from his district if they gave him a campaign donation.”

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: “Trump’s Consumer Watchdog Tells Bankers To Go After His Agency.”

“Mick Mulvaney was never the right choice to run a consumer agency he despises. Now he’s showing even more contempt for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by asking bankers to help gut the agency and revealing his pay-to-play mind-set … Since becoming director, he’s put the brakes on investigations of consumer law violations such as payday and auto lending practices. His speech this week in Washington hit a new level of obstruction by inviting the financial sector to weaken the watchdog agency, which was created in 2010 in the wake of the mortgage meltdown.”