In his farewell address to the nation last week, President Biden warned that an oligarchy is forming in America. In Washington, oligarchs are already here and buying big houses.
Including President-elect Donald J. Trump himself, there are at least a dozen billionaires among his Cabinet nominees and those who will serve in senior positions in his new administration. Elon Musk topped the list with a net worth of $429 billion, making him the richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Trump has an estimated net worth of $6.8 billion.
Wealth is unusually concentrated in a city where power has always been more important than money but is now more intertwined with it than ever before. Mr. Trump campaigned as a populist champion of America's working class, but he placed some of his wealthiest donors in commanding roles in the upper echelons of government. Many will end up overseeing the very industries that created their wealth.
“It's tempting to liken this to the Gilded Age, but John D. Rockefeller didn't actually lead McKinley's campaign or even get to the White House,” said Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter. Michael Waldman, currently president and CEO. The Brennan Center for Justice promotes judicial reform and works to rein in political financing. He mentioned Musk, who spent more than $250 million helping Trump win and is now believed to have an office in the White House complex.
One of the most immediate effects in Washington has been the explosion of the luxury real estate market.
Investor Howard Lutnick, Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary (worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes), bought Fox anchor Bret Baier's French chateau-style mansion on Foxhall Avenue last month for $25 million. It was sold in dollars, making it the world's highest bid. area. Treasury Secretary candidate Scott Bessent (who is worth more than $700 million, according to his financial disclosure statement) owns a property on Georgetown's N Street that was once the home of syndicated columnist Joseph Alsop. We looked at a $7 million Federal-style home.
The 1850 Italianate mansion in Georgetown of the late Boyden Gray, an influential attorney for Republican presidents, was sold last month for $10.5 million. The real estate agent did not identify the buyer, but said there was a shortage of trophy homes in Washington due to President Trump's second term.
“We've been really overwhelmed by the wealth factor that has come to Washington since the election,” said Jim Bell, executive vice president of TTR Sotheby's International Realty. He said the agency is calling customers in Washington to ask if they're interested in selling to the new entrant.
Journalist and author Sally Quinn received such a call from her agent and was looking to double the size of the 18-room 1790s Georgetown mansion she had shared with her late husband, Benjamin C. Bradley, for more than 30 years. He said he was told he could buy it for the price. Famous editor-in-chief of the Washington Post. The house was once owned by Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln.
Quinn said she was happy to receive the call, but was adamant: “I said, 'Absolutely.'” This is my home. ”
It's unclear where Musk will live in Washington, but local media reports say he is buying the Line Hotel in the lively Adams Morgan bar district and intends to turn it into a private club. Tesla founder Musk's rocket company SpaceX has multibillion-dollar contracts with the federal government, but a spokesperson for Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk is expected to co-lead the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, with an office in the Eisenhower Executive Building across the street from the White House. His partner in that effort is Vivek Ramaswami, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur with a net worth of $1 billion who plans to run for the vacant governorship of Ohio in 2026, according to Forbes.
Jonathan Taylor, founder and managing partner of TTR Sotheby's, said wealthy people with ties to, but not necessarily part of, the regime are also moving here. “There are a lot of very wealthy people looking for a seat at the table,” he said.
David Rubenstein, a billionaire and co-founder of private equity firm Carlyle Group, said this was not surprising.
He said big donors “want to get policies from the federal government that they believe in, like more oil drilling, less antitrust policies, less crypto policies, less oversight of banks.” Ta. They also want more aid and immediate access to government officials to help American companies invest overseas. ”
Homes in Washington were also a relative bargain for them, he said. “If you want to buy a really nice house in New York or Southampton, it might cost $100 million to $150 million,” he says. “You can't try to spend $25 million in Washington.”
Mr. Rubenstein, who served as President Jimmy Carter's deputy domestic policy adviser, considered Mr. Baier's home when it was on the market, but decided to remain in his home in Bethesda, Maryland, where he has lived for decades. He said he had decided to do so. He also owns a large property on Nantucket Island that President Biden used for his family's Thanksgiving vacation.
Biden's cabinet is largely made up of single- and double-digit billionaires, but Democrats have money, too. Current White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zaentz listed assets ranging from $68 million to $338 million on his 2024 financial disclosure form. One outlier is Penny Pritzker, an heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune who was President Barack Obama's secretary of commerce and Biden's special envoy for Ukraine's economic recovery. According to Forbes magazine, her current net worth is $4.1 billion.
Mr. Trump's billionaires have significantly more wealth than the top officials who came to Washington during Mr. Trump's first term, which was then considered the wealthiest administration in U.S. history. Rex W. Tillerson, Mr. Trump's first secretary of state and former CEO of ExxonMobil, was worth between $289 million and $350 million in 2017. He served for just over a year before Trump fired him in a tweet.
Some tech billionaires have been in Washington for years, moving here for access to the White House and Congress amid increased government scrutiny of their industries.
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos paid $23 million in 2016 for the 27,000-foot former Textile Museum on Main Street in the Kalorama District. Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who donated more than $1 million to Mr. Trump in 2016, is the owner of a Woodland Drive property owned by Wilbur Ross, who served as Secretary of Commerce during Mr. Trump's first term. Paid $13 million in 2021 for the home. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt paid $15 million for the house across from Ms. Quinn on N Street where Jacqueline Kennedy lived briefly after her husband was assassinated in 1963.
“These are really wealthy people,” says Kara Swisher, a journalist who chronicles the technology industry and a former New York Times opinion writer. “They like to portray themselves as not being spendthrifts, but in reality they are all spenders. Masu.”
Real estate agents say the in-demand neighborhood in Washington is Kalorama in Massachusetts Avenue Heights, off the embassy-lined street of the same name and the cobblestone streets traditionally home to Washington's old elite. It's called George Town. “It's over,” said Jamie Peva, a real estate agent with Washington Fine Properties who has been selling homes in Georgetown for 33 years.
“The whole WASP hegemony that started to decline in the '80s continued to decline,” he says. “All of a sudden technology starts coming in. It's a meritocracy.”
Perhaps some billionaires don't need a home in Washington. Charles Kushner, a real estate executive whose company is valued at $2.9 billion, will live in Paris as the U.S. ambassador to France, according to Forbes. Trump pardoned Kushner, a major donor to Trump's 2024 campaign, in the final days of his first term. In 2004, Mr. Kushner pleaded guilty to retaliating against a federal witness, lying to the Federal Election Commission and tax evasion.
Warren Stevens, an investment banker worth $3.3 billion, will live in London as the US ambassador to the UK, according to Forbes. In 2016, Mr. Stevens donated $2 million to a group aiming to prevent Mr. Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination, and he supported other Republican candidates in the 2024 primary. After it became clear in April that Trump would be the Republican nominee, Stevens donated more than $3 million to his campaign.
Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and longtime Republican donor worth $10.2 billion, will live in Rome as the U.S. ambassador to Italy, according to Forbes.
Eric Lipton contributed reporting.
