Washington
CNN
—
There are more ways than ever to rub elbows with President Donald Trump and his inner circle — especially for those willing to pay.
Trump has opened up the White House and his evenings to people who continue to cut massive checks to his political operation. Businesses connected to Trump’s family have promoted access to the president and struck lucrative deals, including with foreign entities, inviting a thicket of potential conflicts. Within DC, new groups are springing up offering exclusive spaces for the pro-Trump ultra-wealthy to mingle and maneuver. Lobbying firms with ties to Trump are booming.
Trump’s return to power hasn’t just reshaped the federal government — it’s remaking Washington itself. In a capital dense with cultural enclaves that once sought to shut him and allies out, Trump is supercharging the traditional quest to seek influence with a new presidential administration, offering new avenues for access and embedding his network deeper into the city’s political and social elite.
The transformation is playing out in one of the city’s most prominent institutions: the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Trump has seized control of the cultural center, a venue where protests and pointed snubs of Republicans have become commonplace — Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance were booed in March while entering the concert hall. He is actively pursuing a MAGA-friendly makeover, and to execute his vision, he is seeking $250 million in federal funding for the facility in the ongoing budget negotiations on Capitol Hill, two sources with knowledge of his planning told CNN. A Republican-led House committee recently approved a similar amount of money for the Kennedy Center.
Next month, Trump is expected to attend a performance of “Les Misérables” where, for a $2 million donation to the center, guests can sit in the box next to Trump’s and attend a reception with the president and first lady Melania Trump.
“During the first Trump administration, officials felt uncomfortable going to the Kennedy Center, like they weren’t welcome,” one senior White House Official told CNN. “We’re going to change that.”
Trump in April flew to South Florida to personally welcome the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf event at his Doral resort. On Monday, he appeared at a $1.5 million-per-plate fundraiser in Washington for MAGA Inc., a super PAC that once supported his presidential campaign and continues to build a war chest for looming political fights. Later this month, he’ll open his DC-area golf club to the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP meme coin — a cryptocurrency he helped launch and his family directly benefits from — who can join him for a meal. The promotion says the top 25 coin holders will meet Trump on a VIP tour.
Government watchdog groups have bristled at not only the breadth of Trump’s escalating entanglements, but how publicly the president is flaunting the norms of the office as access to him is mixed with financial gain.
“We’ve never seen anything like this on this scale in this country before,” said Jordan Libowitz, spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The brazenness has changed drastically from the first term.”
Unlike eight years ago, his children, who run the family business, are no longer promising to limit deals on foreign soil – though Eric Trump has vowed to keep them walled off from his father – and have recently announced a Trump-branded luxury hotel in the United Arab Emirates and a new golf-centered development in Qatar. Trump, too, appears unconstrained by a Republican-controlled Congress that so far seems uninterested in policing any potential self-dealing conflicts of interest and has fully embraced the lack of guardrails limiting how presidents make money while in office, Libowitz said.
The dollar figures involved are substantially greater than in Trump’s first term, too, as his business interests are shifting from property management and licensing deals to the more lucrative financial sector.
“When you’re booking a room at one of his hotels, he’s getting a couple hundred bucks each time, but there’s a limit to the number of steak dinners you can buy,” Libowitz said. “Now you have the ability to hand him tens of millions of dollars.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly brushed off these concerns.
“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children,” she said in an emailed statement. “There are no conflicts of interest.”
Asked about his business interests during a recent interview with NBC, Trump asserted, “I’m not profiting from anything.” But when pressed, he allowed: “If I own stock in something, and I do a good job, and the stock market goes up, I guess I’m profiting.”
Business leaders and foreign governments are taking notice of the changing dynamics.
An Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm used a stablecoin created by Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, for a recent $2 billion investment — a significant transaction, widely reported, involving a foreign government that Trump’s family stands to benefit from. Meanwhile, the supply chain company Freight Technologies recently announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire up to $20 million of the $TRUMP meme coin. The company’s CEO, Javier Selgas, called the $20 million purchase of Trump coin “an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the US.”
Corporate executives are also flocking to the American Growth Partnership, a new pro-Trump business group that is promising unique insight into White House policies and off-the-record discussions with the president’s appointees and advisers. Launched by Capitol Hill veterans and past advisers to Trump and Vance, the group’s arrival comes as more established Washington business groups, like the US Chamber of Commerce, have spoken out against Trump’s tariff policies.
Memberships cost between $50,000 and $100,000, according to a person familiar with the organization. Upcoming speakers at American Growth Partnership meetings include the chairmen of the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission. Several Fortune 100 companies have already signed up and more are expected, the person said.
Lobbyists Brian Ballard and Jeff Miller – longtime Trump fundraisers and confidants – have seen their client rosters swell since Inauguration Day. Ballard Partners pulled in more than $13.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, ranking fourth among all lobbying firms, according to Senate disclosures analyzed by the influence tracking organization OpenSecrets, far outpacing its 2024 revenue. Miller Strategies reported receiving payments of more than $8.7 million during the same period and is on pace to more than double its 2024 haul. Their clients have enjoyed rarefied access to the president: the CEO of Charter Communications, represented by Miller, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, a Ballard client, each appeared alongside Trump during Oval Office events
Among the dozens of entities now paying for their services are those in sectors roiled by Trump’s return, including elite colleges like Harvard, Cornell and Northwestern; the Public Broadcasting Service; prestigious law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; and businesses affected by tariffs like Mitsubishi. Walt Disney Company hired Ballard Partners earlier this year as it faces increasing pressure from Trump’s new FCC chair Brendan Carr around its ownership of ABC.
For $500,000, Trump’s wealthiest supporters can get together outside of the gaze of journalists, lobbyists or protesters at Executive Branch, an exclusive new MAGA-friendly Georgetown club. The luxury venture was recently started by the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., megadonor Omeed Malik and the sons of Steve Witkoff, Trump’s close friend and go-to global emissary. Witkoff and his sons are also partners with the Trumps on World Liberty Financial.
“To the extent that there are Republican clubs, they tend to be more Bush-era Republicans as opposed to Trump-era Republicans,” tech billionaire and Trump adviser David Sacks explained on the All-In Podcast. “We wanted to create something new, hipper, and Trump-aligned.”
While administration officials boycotted events surrounding the White House Correspondents Dinner – an annual beacon for celebrities and high-power journalists – many were spotted at a party hosted by the Executive Branch, where DC media were largely banned.
“People aren’t so welcoming to Trump administration officials,” a person familiar with the endeavor said. “We need places that are our own.”
