Washington Post offers a long profile and striking charts along with a second article that maps who the top 20 most politically influential billionaires are. The thesis and argument are short and sweet and, of course, there are great graphics.

“The concentration of wealth among the richest Americans is unlike anything in history — and so is billionaires’ influence in politics.”

And sometimes, despite their wealth, they still don’t get what they want: Zohran Mamdani’s defeat in NYC–showing once more that political organization can be an important counterweight to money in politics. Still we should be concerned:

“[A]t least 17 billionaires, collectively worth more than $1 trillion, claimed coveted seats in the Capitol Rotunda” on Inauguration Day. “The three richest men in the world — Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (who owns The Washington Post) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — took places of honor next to Trump’s family.”

“Billionaires didn’t acquire their influence in D.C. overnight.” Presidents from Bill Clinton to Barak Obama courted them.

Still, “Trump’s Cabinet is the wealthiest in U.S. history, with a combined net worth of $7.5 billion, according to Forbes. That’s more than double the $3.2 billion net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet and 64 times the combined wealth held by Biden’s Cabinet.”