Sunday, late afternoon, standing in a packed room in a DC hotel at a party in honor of incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, I found myself nose to nose with a charming man who told me was a banker.
A couple minutes more interrogation and then it emerged he wasn’t your average banker.
“My father was the dictator who ran …..[name of a well-known African country I won’t reveal to protect the source]. So, when he was kicked out I came here and became a banker…Now I might have to go back to XXX.”
Small talk at inauguration parties in DC is unlike small talk in New York - or London for that matter. Or Los Angeles.
I bring up LA, because inauguration weekend in DC reminded me eerily of the Oscars weekend, the only difference being the freezing temperature. There’s the same jostling for the best invites, the same energy, the same nightmarish traffic. (Actually the D.C. traffic gridlock was much worse.)
The only thing I found really baffling about the DC parties was the black tie dress code.
I get why you’d want to wear a long dress to the candlelight dinner on inauguration eve, for example. And there was a late night private dance party in a certain ambassador’s home that was by far the chicest event I’ve ever been to in DC and certainly merited getting dressed up for.
But most of the inaugural events, including the balls, don’t involve dancing by anyone other than the Trump family who are roped off, up on a stage. And there’s no sitting down.
So, why does one need to be in black tie to stand up, drink, eat and network? Most of the women put on their gowns at lunchtime so they don’t waste hours in horrible traffic changing. (But a wise piece of advice came from my host, who told me to wear my jeans or something comfortable to the weekend daytime events, because, he said, I’d stand out, which might be helpful, given my profession. I was skeptical but, of course, he was right.)
What I also hadn’t fully appreciated was just how difficult it is to get anywhere. The snow and the ice on Sunday night made it almost impossible. By the time I went to bed at 2 a.m. I felt like I deserved an Olympic gold medal for navigating the frigid streets of D.C. in three inch heels.
So when, on Monday, Trump mentioned that Melania’s feet were killing her, for once I was completely in sync with what the First Lady must be feeling.
My party experiences aside, two things stood out to me about the day itself:
How greatly the Trump family’s dynamics appear to have changed. And, how, more than ever, they now seem to be the closest thing America has to a Royal family. (I’m thinking of the minutes in the DC arena when one-by-one they got to their feet for applause as Trump called each of them out).
First, he turned to Melania. And, as I wrote here last week, Topic A has to be Melania’s transformation from absentee to the smiling power-behind-the-throne.
I wonder how much it has to do with the fact that Ivanka is not going in to the administration this time? As I reported in Kushner, Inc. there was not much love lost between these two women, and Melania was livid when she learned of Ivanka’s plans to have an office in the East Wing - which she immediately nixed.
Topic B is surely the reshuffling of the kids in terms of value to their father. Back when I wrote Kushner, Inc. many people thought Ivanka was his political heir.
But inside the DC arena, Trump gave a shout out to his kids in the following order: Lara, Eric’s wife (and Eric). Then Don Jr. Then Ivanka. Then Jared. Then Tiffany (and Michael). And then Barron. And then Kai.
Small aside: I find it intriguing that Vanessa Trump, Don Jr’s ex-wife and the mother of their five children is clearly welcome everywhere. More welcome, in fact, than his new girlfriend, Bettina Anderson, who seemed to vanish suddenly for the Capitol ceremony. I don’t know Don Jr. - but speaking as someone who has a close relationship with my ex-husband and sons’ father, I appreciate the work that must have gone into that.
But even before the kids each got a mention, Trump singled out J.D. and Usha Vance, who now feel like they’ve become an extension of the Trump family. (For my money, Usha Vance was the best-dressed woman of the weekend).
For now, at least, the chemistry between Vance and Trump is tangible. Theirs is clearly a much different relationship from the one Trump had - at one distant time - with Mike Pence.
It seems obvious this time around, that Trump is focused on his legacy. JD is central to that. He is increasingly “on brand”. You can feel the almost filial bond between them.
It feels very different from the relationship Trump has, say, with Elon Musk.
The presence of the two foreign billionaires - India’s Mukesh Ambani and France’s Bernard Arnault - is completely fascinating.
There are some obvious commercial synergies. In November 2024 the Times of India reported that India is slated to have the largest number of Trump properties outside of the US. And Ivanka posted the lavish wedding of Mukesh’s son, Anant, on Instagram.
Trump has long wanted to have a closer relationship with Bernard Arnault, the founder and CEO of LVMH. Arguably, even the Trump brand is not on a par with that of Gucci and Tiffany. Which is why, presumably, during his first term Trump and Ivanka flew to Texas in 2019 to join Arnault and his son Alexandre for a factory-opening there.
But there are also some less obvious synergies … and those are around Jared Kushner.
Two years ago both Mukesh Ambani and Xavier Niel, the husband of Arnault’s daughter, Delphine, bought a stake in Thrive Capital, the venture business of Jared’s brother, Josh Kushner - who, along with his wife, Karlie Kloss - was distinctly absent from the Inauguration. (They are Democrats. Karlie Kloss is not close with her sister-in-law.)
When Ambani and Niel invested with Josh in 2023, Thrive was valued at a staggering $5.3 billion.
On top of this, Arnault is reportedly concerned about tariffs. A well-placed source has told me that a big reason Trump appointed Charles Kushner as US ambassador to France is to keep the lines of communication - and commerce - with Arnault open.
Judging by Ivanka’s fashion choices this weekend: the Dior bag she clutched to the ceremony, the Givenchy ball gown she wore in the evening…it seems as though, so far, all is going extremely well.