Swamp being drained

Trump imposes 5-yr. lobbying ban on WH aides

President Trump signed a “swamp-draining” executive order Saturday — a five-year lobbying ban on members of the presidential administration after they leave government service.

Under the order, administration officials are also banned from ever lobbying the United States on behalf of a foreign government.

“Most of the people standing behind me will not be able to go to work,” Trump joked, referring to an array of White House officials who lined up behind him as he sat at his Oval Office desk.

The officials included Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist Steve Bannon and counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The order requires every political appointee who has joined the executive branch on or after Jan. 20 — the day Trump took office — to agree to the lobbying bans.

That includes avoiding, for five years after leaving, lobbying the agency where they worked.

Another provision sets a two-year period during which appointees must avoid working on issues in- volving former employers or clients. Trump is allowed to waive any of the restrictions on a case-by-case basis.

An administration official called the order “the most sweeping ethics reform in at least a generation, if not much longer.”

Still, the order’s wording leaves vague how the bans would be enforced.

The order says they are “solely enforceable” by the federal government “by any legally available means.”

Trump in October touted his anti-lobbying measure as one of six campaign promises that the then-candidate said would “clean up the corruption and special-interest collusion in Washington.”

Another order signed Saturday calls for a reorganization of the National Security Council to make it “more responsive to digital threats,” including online threats and cyber warfare, a senior administration official said.

A third executive action requires the defense secretary to produce within 30 days a report outlining a strategy to defeat ISIS.