White House Staffers Can No Longer Meet With Lobbyists Without Prior Approval, New Memo Says

Stephen Miller is about to upend the way lobbyists work with the White House.

According to a memo from the chief of staff office first obtained by POLITICO, White House staff must receive prior approval from the Office of White House Counsel if they want to meet with a lobbyist.

“No President in history has fought more relentlessly, selflessly or courageously for the American People than President Trump. Following his example, White House staff are expected to dedicate their time unwaveringly to the working people of the nation,” the memo from Miller’s office said.

The prior approval covers meetings on the White House complex with registered lobbyists related to government policy. The Office of Public Liaison will continue to serve as the primary point of contact for engagement with external stakeholders, the memo said.

The memo likely won’t shock lobbyists on K Street where Miller has few friends.

He eschews relationship-based favors. He doesn’t sway easily on issues. He’s ideologically driven and fiercely loyal to President Donald Trump. That makes his elevation to chief of staff difficult for lobbyists seeking to influence the administration in its last two years, a dozen GOP lobbyists told POLITICO.

“The thing with Stephen is, he’s not someone that a lobbyist goes in and has to crack or try to win over,” said Hunter Morgen, a lobbyist at Ballard Partners who worked with Miller at the White House during the first Trump administration. “He doesn’t operate based on relationships. He operates based on policy outcomes that will advance the president’s agenda.”

Miller’s intense ideological stances on mass deportations, anti-woke culture and the America First agenda are well-known in Washington. He started his career in 2009 on Capitol Hill working for then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and has been closely tied to Trump since 2016.

Miller’s predecessor Susie Wiles made it a point to maintain downtown relationships. How precisely Miller will manage those in his new role remains to be seen.

“Even in his deputy chief of staff role, he cared enough to be at Rose Garden dinners and Christmas parties and events that the donor community was invited to, like they do in all administrations,” said a GOP lobbyist who attends social events at White House, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive topics. “So it’s not like he’s an alien to that scene … it’s just going to be done differently.”

“President Trump’s loyalty is to the American people, not lobbyists. His team is dedicated to advancing the President’s agenda, not the agenda of D.C. lobbyists,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. “All of the White House components continue to work in lockstep to implement President Trump’s America First agenda.”

The business community enjoys direct access to Trump, who is known as a relationships-oriented person, including via corporate-sponsored events like the UFC fight and Easter Egg Roll. CEOs have for the past two years had face time with the president or been able to just pick up the phone and call him – and that’s exactly the model some lobbyists plan to follow.

One trade association CEO said Miller’s elevation means it’s more important than ever to establish a direct line to the president. The person described Miller as having a “well documented record on his positions” while Wiles had a “listen to all sides” approach.

Other lobbyists say they will continue to work with staffers on the White House’s Domestic Policy Council and National Economic Council instead of going through Miller. Others say they are still figuring out how to navigate this new normal.

“He’s impossible to lobby, no one can do it, not even the people that you would think are closest,” one of those lobbyists said. “I think he’s more reasonable than he’s being portrayed, but he’s not swayed by lobbying.”

That’s a clear distinction between Miller and Wiles, who built a lobbying career at Ballard Partners and Mercury Public Affairs before going to work for Trump. Miller’s background doesn’t lend itself to a close relationship with a single lobbying shop the way Wiles’ did. Financial disclosures show Miller has only received non-governmental salaries from legal nonprofit America First Legal and his political consulting firm, both of which he created between the two Trump administrations.

A Wiles spokesperson, who was not aware of Miller’s plans, said earlier on Thursday before the memo came out that Trump is “a very relational person” and that Wiles “understood the importance of having strong relationships.”

“It’s not just relationships with K Street, it’s relationships with donors, members of Congress, political committees, reporters,” they said. “That’s driven by the president.”

Ballard Partners founder Brian Ballard, a close ally of Trump, this week had to defend against allegations about improper access to Wiles when she was Trump’s chief of staff. His firm is on track to earn more than $100 million this year — more than four times the $24 million it made in 2020 during the first Trump administration.

Calley Means, a former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,accused the firm of exercising undue influence on the White House, also name-checking lobbying shop Continental Strategy, where Wiles’ daughter works as a partner.

“Our firm’s interactions with Susie Wiles as chief of staff have been limited and have been the exception, not the rule,” Ballard said in a rare public statement on X. Continental Strategy called Means’ claims “inaccurate and baseless.”

“Calley Means' accusations are outrageous, defamatory, and provably false,” the spokesperson for Wiles said. “Susie has dedicated her career to fighting for President Trump and the American people.”

Miller, meanwhile, has relationships with like-minded Trump allies, which doesn’t account for the institutional longtime Washington lobbyists looking to elevate their corporate clients’ interests in the final two years of the Trump administration.

“Stephen is an insular guy, and he's got some relationships, but his relationships are with the hard Trump allies and people that are ideological in nature,” another lobbyist said. “He has never been accessible to downtown either in the first term or now.”

Those allies include immigration hard-liners who supported Miller’s leadership behind Trump’s mass deportations and ICE crackdowns. He is also an ally of the Make America Healthy Again movement and those advocates now have high expectations for their agenda with him at the helm.

Miller’s alliances in the MAGA firebrand advocacy space, along with his reputation for fiercely fighting for Trump’s top priorities, will help shape the new era at the White House.

“This is a departure of who we’ve seen as a Trump chief of staff before, that’s not a negative,” said Mark Bednar, a principal at Monument Advocacy who led communications for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “He’s his own person. He’s going to fight for the president’s policy priorities. And I think that he brings a lot of strengths to the job that he’s uniquely qualified for.”

“You can … rest assured that Stephen will be heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the White House, and he'll have a big say into the flow of traffic,” Bednar added.

Wiles kept the Trump White House in line bycracking down on leaks andtightening control over Cabinet officials’ international travel. She would also meet directly with CEOs — she was among the White House officialswho met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in April amid the administration’s feud with the AI company. And, she would talk directly with lawmakers — she madea rare visit in July to Capitol Hill to push Senate Republicans to unlock Trump’s agenda.

Miller’s wife Katie Miller,who lobbied for Stephen Miller to get the chief of staff role, previously worked with Elon Musk on his DOGE effort and for SpaceX before launching her own podcast, which hosted high-ranking administration officials. Stephen Miller recused himself from his wife’s financial interests — he didn’t work on Paramount issues because of a potential podcast deal and avoided work on issues around Musk’s companies, according toThe Atlantic. Katie Millerannounced Sunday she would stop recording new podcast episodes.

An in-house lobbyist for a Fortune 500 company said their focus for the next two years is avoiding land mines rather than trying to hit home runs. The person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said since Stephen Miller is known for being ideologically driven, “you’re either on his side or you’re not.”

Megan Messerly contributed to this report.