Member-only story
Inside the Club Where America’s Future Is Whispered
USA Power has a Membership Fee
Only the Richest of the Rich Can Enter
If we’ve ever wondered why every U.S. president looks like he owns a yacht or is friends with someone who owns seven, here’s the secret: power in America isn’t earned — it’s purchased. The White House is not so much a symbol of public service as it is a very exclusive real estate listing for the ultra-wealthy. Think of it like a country club, but instead of golf, we get nuclear codes.
Washington once aspired to be Athens. Now it aspires to be The Capital — from The Hunger Games — but with better skin care routines and a slightly worse sense of irony.
If we’re broke, idealistic, or under the illusion that “we the people” includes us, sorry, the velvet rope stays closed.
The grandees of Washington have what they so richly deserve: their own Versailles, without the riffraff, the proletariat, or heaven forbid, a member of the fourth estate asking unpleasant questions. As it is cheekily called, it is the latest addition to Georgetown’s already gleaming diadem of exclusivity, brought to life by none other than Malik, a benevolent patron of the arts of finance, and the president’s bloodline — that eldest scion of Orange Man ambition.
