The Influencer

The Old Post Office is a hulking granite building with Romanesque turrets and a looming clocktower that stands out from the mostly drab office buildings lining Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the White House. During Donald Trump’s first term, the building was home to the Trump International Hotel, a base of operations for anyone looking to have access to, or curry favor with, the administration. On any given day, you might have spotted Mike Lindell taking selfies with tourists, or Eric Bolling posted up at his favorite corner table. Rudy Giuliani held court at a restaurant there so often, the staff made a special nameplate for what they jokingly dubbed his “private office.”

Today, the property is a Waldorf Astoria—the Trump family sold the lease in 2022—and while its lobby is no longer the center of gravity it once was, it retains a special status as something of a holy relic for a certain kind of conservative operative. On a recent rainy Wednesday afternoon, influence-seeking foreign businessmen stood smoking cigarettes on the arcaded front steps while valet drivers attended to a line of Range Rovers and Porsches; inside, Sean Hannity strode through the atrium, on the way to or from some meeting. On a velveteen couch off the lobby bar, Alex Bruesewitz, a baby-faced political operative whose fortunes have risen with Trump’s return to power, sat dressed in an off-white Hugo Boss shirt and jeans, nursing a seltzer and lime.