A Trump oligarchy is moving to Washington, and buying up prime addresses

By Elisabeth Bumiller

 

President Biden warned in his farewell address to the nation last week that an oligarchy is taking shape in America. In Washington, the oligarchs are already here, buying big houses.

 

Counting President-elect Donald J Trump himself, there are at least a dozen billionaires among his cabinet picks and those headed for senior roles in the new administration. Elon Musk tops the list with a $429 billion net worth, according to Forbes, making him the world’s richest man. Trump weighs in with an estimated $6.8 billion.

 

It is an extraordinary concentration of wealth in a city where power has always been more important than money, but is now more than ever intertwined with it. Trump campaigned as a populist defender of the American working class, but he has put some of his richest donors in commanding roles in the top reaches of government.  

 

One of the most immediate effects in Washington has been an explosion in the luxury real estate market.

 

The financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s choice to be commerce secretary (worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes), last month closed on the French Chateau-style home of the Fox anchor Bret Baier on Foxhall Road for $25 million, a record for the area. 

 

Scott Bessent, nominee for Treasury secretary has looked at a $7 million Federal-style house on N Street in Georgetown, once the home of the syndicated columnist Joseph Alsop. 

 

It is unclear where Musk will live in Washington, although there some reports say he is trying to buy the Line Hotel in the buzzy, bar-heavy neighbourhood of Adams Morgan and turn it into a private club. He is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower Executive Building across the White House as the co-leader of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency. 

 

“We’ve really been overwhelmed by the wealth factor that has come to Washington since the election,” said Jim Bell, an executive vice president of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. 

 

Jonathan Taylor, a founder and managing partner of TTR Sotheby’s, said that the rich with connections to the administration, although not necessarily a part of it, are moving here too. “There are a lot of very wealthy people looking for a seat at the table,” he said.

 

Trump’s billionaires have substantially bigger assets than the top officials who came to Washington for his first term, which was considered the wealthiest administration in American history at the time.