#revolving-door-corruption — Public Fediverse posts

A Reminder that Antofagasta’s Copper and Nickel Mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters is a Coordinated Political Project

In my most recent post about the Senate vote to overturn the Rainy River Watershed Mineral Withdrawal, I made the simple point (for what seems the umpteenth time, forgive me) that this latest bid to hand over the Boundary Waters to a foreign mining company is part of a coordinated political project, one that stretches back to Trump’s first term and with connections to Project 2025.

The coordinating is being done behind closed doors, much of it by Antofagasta’s lobbyists, and nowadays that means The Bernhardt Group, the lobbying firm that Trump’s former Secretary of Interior, David Bernhardt, set up last year. The Group has edged out all other firms and now exclusively runs the Antofagasta lobbying game in DC.

Now we have The Bernhardt Group’s lobbying disclosures for the first quarter of 2026. The form shows a slight increase in revenue — from $110,000 in the final quarters of 2025 to $120,000 this quarter. Three Bernhardt lobbyists worked every room necessary: the House, the Senate, Interior, Executive Office of the President, and USDA.

It’s notable that the Group did not lobby DOJ this quarter, as they did in 2025. As I remarked last week, passing HJR 140 likely rendered moot the case before the DC District Court of Appeals. A favorable judgment in that case seemed highly unlikely.

Having worked with the federal government to put that case on hold, the Bernhardt Group could focus instead on the political front. The House and Senate passed House Joint Resolution 140 to overturn the mineral withdrawal. The Executive Office of the President could be involved in all sorts of ways, and it’s worth remembering that one of the most powerful figures in that Office these days is Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025; the agencies (Interior and USDA) had to be captured and controlled — easy enough with people like Doug Burgum and Brooke Rollins in charge.

Under their direction, the agencies will now start taking steps to approve Antofagasta’s lease applications (the stated object on these federal disclosures) and move the Twin Metals project toward the permitting phase.

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