Axiom Strategies’ founder Jeff Roe said his GOP consulting firm slashed 10% of its employees Friday and offered new details in his first interview since the layoffs, following public clashes with President Donald Trump’s team.
The reductions, the biggest in the company’s 20 years, aim to position the firm for the industry’s volatile future, with disruptions from artificial intelligence, voters’ shifting party loyalties, and changing media consumption habits, Roe said in an interview with Bloomberg Government, his first to discuss the cuts and overhaul at his company.
“The political industry is going to undergo more innovation and more seismic changes, driven by the way people receive their information and news, in the next five years than in the last 50,” Roe said.
Roe drew the ire of Trump allies, in part, because of his work for a political action committee that backed Gov. Ron DeSantis (Fla.) over Trump in the 2024 Republican primary. Roe exited that PAC after news reports of infighting there.
Critics publicly opposed Roe and discouraged Republicans from hiring the firm.
K Street headhunter Ivan Adler said it struck him as similar to recent efforts of Trump attacks on Big Law firms.
“It shows the president is willing to go beyond just major law firms to make his presence known,” Adler said.
Roe said Axiom, after the layoffs Friday, still had a bigger headcount than it had on Election Day 2024, but he declined to give the number. He said the firm’s business is sound, despite the cuts and the rift with the Trump team.
He added that some campaign tools, such as robocalls, are falling out of favor, while AI-fueled analytics and products are the future.
“We have a 100-year vision for our company,” he said. “We have to restructure continuously to meet the voters where they are.”
Advocacy Business
Roe also detailed plans to grow the company’s lobbying business, AxAdvocacy, which brought in more than $3 million in federal lobbying fees in 2024.
It counted UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Blue Stream Communications LLC as clients, according to disclosures filed with Congress. The group has registered 10 new federal lobbying clients so far in 2025, including the Auto Care Association, Clearview AI, and energy company Ameresco.
Roe declined to specify the number of employees his firm eliminated Friday but said the cuts were in multiple units and offices around the country, though he did not plan to close any offices. Some of the positions eliminated were duplicative, such as human resources or accounting functions, he said.
“We’re going to have some folks that are tremendous people that signed up for a journey with us where there’s not a place for them because of this restructuring,” Roe said. “That’s difficult.”
Trump Team Rift
Chris LaCivita, a co-manager of Trump’s 2024 campaign, posted on the platform X on Thursday that it was “Liberation Day” for many of Roe’s employees “who word on the street is will be unceremoniously sacked.”
LaCivita did not respond to a phone message seeking comment left Thursday at the firm Michael Best Strategies where he is on the board of advisers, according to the firm’s website.
“I’ve known Chris for many years,” Roe said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been on the same side. He’s using the opportunity, it appears for business reasons, so good for him.”
Political Clients
Axiom’s first quarter, which just closed, was the firm’s best quarter yet with more than 100 members of the House and Senate as existing clients, Roe said. The firm is planning to hold a 20th anniversary retreat next week in Nashville that includes a bourbon tasting as well as a black tie optional gala at the Country Music Hall of Fame, according to an online schedule.
Candidate quarterly reports, showing campaign spending, are due mid-month. A leadership PAC tied to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) disclosed paying $16,000 to Axiom in January and February, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
In the 2024 election cycle, Axiom received hundreds of federal campaign disbursements, according to FEC reports. The Republican Party of Texas, Never Back Down, Cruz’s campaign, and House Republicans’ campaign arm were among those reporting expenses paid to Axiom, the documents show.
Though Axiom, like other political shops, routinely “retools” for new election cycles, Roe said this was his firm’s biggest restructuring, in part, because of the shifting strategies in political consulting.
In the next campaign cycle, Roe said he sees more opportunity to target voters on streaming TV services, as candidates seek voters increasingly not affiliated with parties, those less likely to vote, and undecided voters.
“We see explosive growth in YouTube advertising,” he said
Industry Catch Up
As more potential voters get information from podcasts, too, campaigns need to move there: “The industry needs to catch up,” he said.
He’s also an investor in an AI company that he declined to name; he says he expects AI to “change the entire paradigm.”
Roe said he started Axiom in 2005 in Liberty, Mo., with a team of six working above a bail bondsman’s office.
Roe moved to Houston for Cruz’s 2016 presidential race and still resides there. The firm’s headquarters are in Kansas City. Axiom consulted for Glenn Youngkin’s successful 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race.
“We need to be leading edge,” Roe said. “We have people’s careers on the line, and in many respects the future of the country on the line. We’ve got to win.”
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