{"id":150137,"date":"2016-05-09T10:14:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T16:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=150137"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:10:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:10:58","slug":"two-very-different-donalds-one-white-house-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/05\/two-very-different-donalds-one-white-house-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Two very different Donalds, one White House goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don McGahn\u2019s picture is conspicuously missing from the wall of former commissioners at the Federal Election Commission, and it\u2019s nowhere on the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/a>

Gage Skidmore \/ Creative Commons<\/p>

Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against what he considers the poison of special-interest money in politics, while Don McGahn is best known for helping special interests play politics with as few restrictions as possible. (photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

The former FEC chairman\u2019s presence, though, is still felt, nearly three years after he resigned from the commission. Former colleagues and fellow lawyers describe him as a disruptor who proudly upended enforcement policies and contributed to the FEC\u2019s current gridlocked state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here to work, to change the way the place thinks. I was proven right time and time again by court cases,\u201d McGahn told the Center for Public Integrity<\/a> shortly after stepping down.<\/p>\n

McGahn is now a key player for the presidential campaign machine of an even more disruptive Donald \u2014 presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who\u2019s rocketing toward a likely general election showdown with Democrat\u00a0Hillary Clinton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the two Donalds are most curious partners.<\/p>\n

Their working relationship\u2019s tangled roots reach back decades to Atlantic City, where McGahn\u2019s powerful uncle represented Trump\u2019s business interests \u2014 until the alliance cracked in a bitter feud over money.<\/p>\n

And the younger McGahn and Trump are hardly ideological soulmates. Trump has repeatedly<\/a> railed<\/a> against what he considers the poison of special-interest money in politics, while McGahn is best known for helping special interests play politics with as few restrictions as possible.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s a marriage of convenience between a brash billionaire and one of the savviest campaign lawyers his money can buy. Regardless, McGahn is one of a small group of insiders who have been standing at Trump\u2019s side since the mogul\u00a0launched<\/a> his unlikely, odds-defying bid last June.<\/p>\n

McGahn has up to now operated mostly in the background \u2014 neither he nor the Trump organization would comment. But as the Trump campaign prepares its general election battle plan, McGahn, as campaign counsel, will inevitably serve as a powerful weapon in Trump\u2019s quest for the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

‘Like a sledgehammer’<\/h3>\n

If Trump wins?\u00a0Previous campaign lawyers to White House contenders have later molded administration policy in important respects.\u00a0This means one of the nation\u2019s most polarizing election lawyers could return to center stage \u2014 and not just thanks to the classic rock cover band he plays<\/a> guitar with on weekends.<\/p>\n