We’ve got a special treat for PAY DIRT readers this week. This story is adapted from my new book Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington (Viking), co-authored with my colleague Asawin Suebsaeng. You can pick up your copy here.
Mercedes Schlapp nearly always kept her West Wing office door open, so it was odd in mid-2018 when, after inviting her colleague Cliff Sims to a meeting with a few people he’d never met before, Mercy (as colleagues know her) closed the door behind them. Even Sims’ presence at the meeting was a bit odd, acquaintances of each remarked to us; he and Schlapp weren’t out-and-proud internal enemies, but their relationship wasn’t exactly warm either. But she said she wanted Sims’ help with something, so he made the trek of a dozen or so feet from his office to hers.
Schlapp sat behind her desk as Sims took a chair against the wall. She made introductions. Sims was seated next to Van Hipp, a former chairman of the South Carolina GOP and one of D.C.’s premier Pentagon lobbyists. On a small couch in the office were two people one would normally be surprised to find in the Trump White House: Rick Harrison, co-owner of Las Vegas’ World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, better known for his starring role in the History Channel series Pawn Stars, and, sitting beside him, an employee of his production company.
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“I wanted to bring everyone together because I think Van and Rick have a wonderful idea that can help the president,” Schlapp told the room.
Then it got weird.
Sims is better known these days as the author of a tell-all book, Team of Vipers, on his nearly two years working in Donald Trump’s White House as the director of message strategy. At the time, Schlapp was the White House’s director of strategic communications. She’s also one half of a Washington power-couple that rode Donald Trump’s ascent to the pinnacle of political influence during his administration. As Mercy worked within the confines of the West Wing, her husband, Matt Schlapp, ran a lobbying firm that frequently plugged its clients’ priorities with the president’s staff.
Schlapp also runs the American Conservative Union, an influential nonprofit that scores Republican legislators’ adherence to the group’s agenda. ACU also hosts an annual confab, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which has turned into a mecca of influence-peddling. For five- and six-figure donations to ACU, companies and trade associations can enjoy official promotion from the group, and even shape the topics and programming of the events. Unbeknownst to Sims when he stepped in to Mercy’s office, Harrison had enjoyed a prime speaking slot on the main conference stage at CPAC 2018 just a few months earlier.
Schlapp quickly turned the meeting over to Hipp and Harrison, who proceeded to pitch Sims on their idea for what amounted to a reality-TV show starring the president of the United States—while he was still the sitting president of the United States. They were working on a pitch for a new television series, with each episode focusing on a particular historical event. They wanted to enlist Trump for on-camera interviews once a week focusing on each episode’s particular topic, according to several people with knowledge of their plans at the time.
Throughout the meeting, Schlapp kept talking up Sims. He’s your guy, she told Hipp and Harrison. He does all the video work with the president. They see each other every morning. He can make this happen. He can go and pitch the president on the idea.
Sims was trying to be polite, but he explained that there was no way they could fit weekly on-camera interviews into the president’s schedule like that. Hipp and Harrison anticipated the snag. Perhaps, they suggested, they could tail the president during his morning walk from the bottom of the residence elevator over to the Oval Office.
The meeting ended without any commitments, but Schlapp repeatedly followed up with Sims in the following weeks, pressing him on whether he’d pitched the president on the idea. The whole thing seemed very strange to Sims, who confided in multiple associates and friends about this strange occurrence, trying to figure out what on earth was going on. Why was Schlapp so big on this obscure idea? And why was she bringing it to him, rather than pitching the president herself, as her access to Trump would certainly allow?
Things really crystallized when Sims and others began asking around about Hipp. It turned out that he is a board member of Schlapp’s American Conservative Union. And nestled among Hipp’s high-profile defense and pharmaceutical lobbying clients was a conspicuous one signed in late 2017: Rick Harrison Productions. Hipp had been at the White House meeting plugging his client’s latest project. Interestingly, Hipp didn’t disclose lobbying the West Wing on Harrison’s behalf until late 2018, after Sims left the White House.
The realization of all those connections also provided a clue about why Schlapp had come to Sims instead of pitching the president directly. She and her husband recoil at any suggestion that they’re using their positions and influence with the president to advance their private interests. Having Sims propose the idea would provide a degree of separation: The Schlapps could claim it wasn’t their idea; it was Sims’.
Harrison’s history show never ended up happening. But in February of the following year, his fans could still find him addressing the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
When we approached Sims about this story in late 2019, Sims just chuckled and said, “No, thanks, I’m good. But I do love Pawn Stars.”
