Joe Biden, the ousted president of the USA, warned the people in his farewell message that an oligarchy with enormous wealth, power and influence is forming in the United States, which can threaten democracy. The oligarchs are already in Washington and are buying luxury houses in the best addresses – writes “The New York Times”. “We’ve been really blown away by the wealth that’s come into town since the election,” Jim Bell, vice president of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, told the magazine.
As “The New York Times” notes, there are at least a dozen billionaires among the members of the cabinet chosen by Donald Trump and the people who occupy high positions in his administration. Elon Musk tops the list with a net worth of $429 billion, making him the richest person in the world. Trump’s net worth is estimated at $6.8 billion.
“It’s an unusual concentration of wealth in a city where power has always been more important than money, but now it depends on it more than ever,” says The New York Times. The newspaper notes that “Trump campaigned as a populist champion of working-class America, but he has placed some of his wealthiest donors in executive positions at the highest levels of government.”
Most of them will control the same industries that made them rich.
– The comparison to the Golden Age (the period of US history from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the Spanish-American War in 1898 – ed.) is interesting, but John Rockefeller did not really manage the campaign. William McKinley (president of the USA in 1897-1091 – ed.) and did not move to the White House, – said Michael Waldman, the main author, in an interview with the newspaper speaking for President Bill Clinton and currently the president and director of the Brennan Center for Justice, which promotes legal reform and works to reduce money in politics.
As the NY Times explains, Waldman was referring to Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help Trump win and is now expected to have an office in the White House.
Record price
The New York Times writes about the “explosion in the luxury real estate market.”
Financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary (he’s worth $1.5 billion, according to Forbes) last month closed a deal on a house that resembles a French chateau. The property, on Foxhall Road, was previously the home of Fox presenter Bret Baier. The transaction amount is 25 million dollars, which is a record in this area.
Scott Bessent, a candidate for Treasury secretary (his financial disclosures show his net worth is more than $700 million), has been eyeing a $7 million federal mansion on N Street in Georgetown that once belonged to columnist Joseph Alsop.
An 1850s Georgetown Italianate home to Boyden Gray, the top lawyer for Republican presidents, sold for $10.5 million last month. Real estate agents did not want to reveal the buyer.
Jim Bell, vice president of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, told the NY Times: “We’ve been really blown away by the wealth that’s flowed into Washington since the election.” He added that agents are calling their clients in Washington to ask if they are interested in selling their luxury properties.
Journalist and author Sally Quinn received one such call from an agent who told her she could get twice the asking price for an 1890s Georgetown home. This house was once owned by Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln.
Quinn said she was happy to get the call, but was adamant: “I said, ‘Never.'” This is my house, she added.
Hotel Musk kupi?
It’s unclear where Elon Musk will live in Washington, though local media reports say he’s looking to buy the Line Hotel in the bustling, bar-filled Adams Morgan neighborhood and turn it into a private club. A spokesman for Musk, the founder of Tesla, whose rocket company SpaceX has a multibillion-dollar contract with the federal government, did not respond to a NY Times request for comment.
“Musk is expected to have an office in the Eisenhower building across the street from the White House as co-chairman of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency,” the newspaper writes. He recalls that “his partner in this venture is Vivek Ramaswamy, a billion-dollar pharmaceutical entrepreneur.
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