Since leaving Avenue — and starting Lewandowski Strategic Advisors — Mr. Lewandowski has become a more regular visitor to the White House and a more active player in Mr. Trump’s political circle. Last month, Mr. Trump gave Mr. Lewandowski and Mr. Bossie the task of drumming up support for an ultimately unsuccessful last-ditch effort to resuscitate the Trump-backed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Last week, Mr. Lewandowski and Mr. Bossie traveled aboard Air Force One to a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, with the president and his White House staff. Mr. Lewandowski also recently changed his Twitter profile picture: It is now a shot of him aboard Air Force One.
Fred Wertheimer, the president of the watchdog group Democracy 21, said Mr. Trump’s White House appeared to be allowing outside advisers an extraordinary amount of sway within the administration. Democrats in Congress have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Mr. Icahn has pushed policies that have benefited his own businesses.
Advisers like Mr. Icahn and Mr. Lewandowski exist in a “never-never land,” Mr. Wertheimer said, allowed a high degree of White House access while remaining unfettered by the ethics rules and financial disclosures that apply to government employees.
“This is self-dealing by these intermediaries,” Mr. Wertheimer said. “They aren’t in there to give good advice about what an administration should do. They’re in there to get special influence for their clients or financial benefits for themselves.”
