Susie Wiles’ old lobbying firm made $186 million under Trump. Now it’s caught in MAGA’s feud.

November 10, 2026 / 6:00 AM EST / CBS News

For the last two years, Brian Ballard's ties to President Trump made his lobbying firm one of the most sought-after in Washington. Now those same ties have made it a target in the Republican Party's post-midterm infighting.

Calley Means, a former top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleged in an interview Sunday with CBS News' "Face the Nation" that Ballard Partners "controlled" White House policy. Mr. Trump's former chief of staff, Susie Wiles, worked at the firm for nearly a decade as a managing partner, leaving in 2019.

Means claimed Ballard Partners' rise to become the top-earning lobbying firm "did not happen by accident." He accused Wiles and other top advisers to Mr. Trump of catering to industries that funded Republicans ahead of the midterms. Ballard and Wiles both called the claims false.

The firm's interactions with Wiles as chief of staff "have been limited and have been the exception, not the rule," Brian Ballard, a longtime Trump fundraiser, said in a rare statement Sunday.

Ballard Partners' more than $88 million in lobbying revenue last year was, at the time, the most any firm…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/