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From Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue to tech giants like Google and TikTok: Meet the Trump whisperer in demand

Fortescue has joined a laundry list of global business heavyweights using a lobbying firm run by Donald Trump’s Floridian friend and fundraiser. ASX-listed mining giants like Fortescue, Rio Tinto and BHP are eager to lock in Trump-aligned influence peddlers to navigate the US President’s chaotic policy agenda. Australia’s diplomatic relationship with the Trump administration is frayed, leading one pundit to suggest ASX-listed companies with US ventures would be doing a disservice to their shareholders by not hiring lobbyists to curry favour with POTUS. The West Australian understands Fortescue this month hired Brian Ballard’s enterprise Ballard Partners. The iron ore miner and green energy aspirant joins the likes of TikTok, Amazon, Google, Uber, Honda, KPMG and even the governments of Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to retain Ballard Partners’ services. By the end of January, less than two months after Mr Trump was elected President, Ballard Partners re-emerged from the political wilderness after four years of Democratic Party rule to reportedly sign up about 50 new clients. Mr Ballard hails from Florida and began to forge close ties with Mr Trump in the late 1980s, not long after the flamboyant billionaire purchased the Mar-a-Lago estate in the southern US state. The lobbyist went on to become a key fundraiser for Mr Trump’s three presidential campaigns. Rio Tinto also uses a Trump-aligned firm, CGCN, which is run by Tim Pataki. Mr Pataki was an assistant to Mr Trump during his first presidency. Sources say BHP is currently shopping around for a new outfit with strong Trump links to represent its interests in Washington DC. Fortescue, Rio and BHP all derive the bulk of their earnings from Pilbara iron ore, yet the trio have major growth ambitions tied to the US. Fortescue has started building a $US550 million ($867m) green hydrogen plant in Arizona but last month conceded its plans might have to be put on ice while trying to gauge Mr Trump’s appetite for clean energy. The US President wants his country to focus on pumping out more oil and gas as part of a “drill, baby, drill” mantra. Meanwhile, Rio mines copper and borates in the US, and its lucrative aluminium smelters in Canada are likely to be hamstrung by Mr Trump’s recent move to slap tariffs on Canadian aluminium imports. Rio and BHP are battling Native American groups to jointly develop a huge copper mine in Arizona. BHP is also spending more than $23 billion to build a potash operation in Canada that will target farmers in the US as a key market for the fertiliser product. University of Western Australia finance professor Raymond Da Silva Rosa said it was not surprising major Australian miners were leaning on lobbyists connected directly to Mr Trump. “I think they’d almost be irresponsible not to hire them . . . Trump seems susceptible to personal flattery, and it certainly seems the last person he speaks to has a significant influence on what decision he makes,” Dr Da Silva Rosa told The West Australian. “We’ve got some sort of patrimonial kind of rule situation in the United States, so a lobbying approach that focuses on his (Trump’s) friends and close contacts seems to me entirely sensible under the circumstances. “For the big companies, politics has always been a part of business but what’s different now is that the particular rules of the game are slightly different.” Dr Da Silva believes Mr Trump not allowing any tariff exemptions is “not sustainable” and the trade restrictions will “crumble in time”, opening the door for the President’s Republican Party colleagues to gain a bigger voice. “For now, Trump is popular and so the other Republican politicians are falling into line,” he said. “But once the policies start hurting, some of that public support will turn and then the dynamic in the Party might change with other Republicans gaining more influence and therefore the lobbying efforts might get spread out again.”

exclusiveFrom Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue to tech giants like Google and TikTok: Meet the Trump whisperer in demand

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From Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue to tech giants like Google and TikTok: Meet the Trump whisperer in demand