@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:46

Working in Washington DC: Dallas McClendon - Worked at Trump Whitehouse! And currently at The Business Roundtable. Lets Get Into it!!

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And I guess I don't want to jump into your job right now. I actually want to take a step back for you to share with us decisions you made about where you went to College and what you studied and kind of take us to that place first, because that's a good building block for us to understand where you started. And so much for being here

Life on the inside - and outside. Navigating the DC Landscape https://www.businessroundtable.org/ @dmcclendon #swellinterview

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@dmcclendon
Dallas McClendon
@dmcclendon · 3:29
And it really just clicked with me. Sophomore year, I decided to change my major to economics, finished out my College career and got a business degree in economics. And I was thinking about an economics career and what jobs are out there. The thing that drew me to economics was how economists look at people's decision making and how humans forego one thing for another. And that kind of it's on a small scale and also a large scale, too
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:50

What was THAT like!!!!

You were working, I think, in the trade area because of your expertise in economics and trade. Can you talk to us about that process of getting into a specific Department? And who did you work for? What was that environment like? Were you with other interns? What were some of the AHA moments for you? Did it feel like real life or did it feel like an internship and was it a paid internship? And did you feel mobility even inside your position?
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@dmcclendon
Dallas McClendon
@dmcclendon · 3:07
I think that we should be doing more for more kids from all different types of backgrounds so that they also have that same experience. And we find the best and brightest in all the different respective fields across government and leadership and business and think tanks. I think that's diversity and working to everyone's strengths, how we have a stronger government, public private sector interaction
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@dmcclendon
Dallas McClendon
@dmcclendon · 1:24
But after things were squared away after his passing, I went back to DC for a second internship at the Office of the US Trade Representative, which is the trade negotiating arm of the White House, and it deals in negotiating free trade agreements like NAFTA, USMCA, China, Japan, UK with other countries. And that was my first real job in government in DC full time after College, so feel free to ask questions about that and then we can take it into my private sector job
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@sudha
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 1:17

@dmcclendon

Hey Dallas, it was lovely to hear what you had to say and I'm not sure if this Converse open for questions yet, but since it's been a few days, I thought I'll ask you a question if I got the timeline right. You were in the US Trade Office during the Trump administration. Did you find significant changes in how you were negotiating trade with other countries, with do everything in America policy that Trump campaigned on?
@dmcclendon
Dallas McClendon
@dmcclendon · 1:36
Thanks so much for your question. Yeah. It's true that Trump campaigned on Make America Great again. And part of Make America Great Again was to buy and manufacturer within the United States and take a more inward approach to trade policy. And that very much was true at the negotiating table with other countries and the Trump administration trade policies. It very much was more business oriented and focused
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@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@sudha
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 0:50

@dmcclendon

Dallas, thank you so much for that response. And so I just have a followup question. I am not sure if you continue to have contacts within that administration even though you have left it. And if you do, in your view, what do you think is different from how it operates now to how it operated when you were part of that office? Just any pros, any cons. What is it that you have heard and what are your thoughts on how things are being negotiated now?
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