When Fox News called the presidential election for Donald J. Trump early Wednesday morning, guests at a private party at a cigar lounge in Palm Beach, Fla., began congratulating the lobbyist who hosted the event.
“Two hundred million a year in revenue!” one guest proclaimed, predicting a windfall for the lobbyist, Robert Stryk, in a forthcoming Trump administration.
The prediction seemed fanciful — Mr. Stryk’s small firm averaged about $4.8 million a year in lobbying fees after bursting onto the scene early in the first Trump administration — but it reflected a gleefulness about a sudden surge in demand for lobbyists with ties to Mr. Trump’s orbit.
In corporate boardrooms and foreign capitals, there was a scramble on Wednesday to sign lobbyists who could help navigate an incoming administration viewed with uncertainty and concern. Even after his first presidential term ended four years ago, Mr. Trump remained something of an enigma to the deep-pocketed interests whose fates depend on staying in Washington’s good graces, or at least out of its cross hairs.
They wanted help and were willing to pay for it.
Companies and foreign countries have long relied on lobbyists to guide them through the shifts in power on Capitol Hill or the White House. But since Mr. Trump first upended global politics in 2016, he has continued to confound establishment gatekeepers on K Street, the Washington boulevard that was traditionally home to many lobbying firms. They largely kept their distance from him for fear of alienating blue-chip clients who worried about brand damage from being associated with his inflammatory rhetoric.
Mr. Trump’s team, in turn, at times tried to restrict access for lobbyists who either opposed him or stayed on the sidelines, as well as for those seen as profiteering off their connections to him. It has led to a delicate dance in which a relatively small group of lobbyists have sought to demonstrate their value to him — including by raising money for his cash-strapped campaigns — and to cautious clients, without running afoul of the sensitivities of either.
