Questions abound following Donald Trump’s election last week, and while almost all of them are beyond my political expertise and predictive powers, I have some thoughts on a less pressing concern. A question less about the future of our nation and more about the future of our new government efficiency czar. Where will Elon Musk live?

After investing more than $130 million in the Trump campaign, including staging Million dollar “lotteries” For voters in swing states, Musk will descend on Washington with no shortage of political influence. Notably, as co-chair of the new maybe-it’s-a-committee, maybe-it’s-just-two-lines-on-a-press release from the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), it will need somewhere to crash as it attempts to cut 2 trillion dollars of the federal budget.

Musk’s history with real estate is complicated and revealing. Like most billionaires, he initially embarked on an expansionary phase, amassing properties the same way we amass parking tickets. Starting in 2012, he launched a wave of neighbor buyout purchases, closing out a group of six properties in Los Angeles’ famed Bel-Air neighborhood. His main house, a six-bedroom, 16,251 square foot estate designed like a French chateau, was a haunt worthy of the Tesla mogul: tennis court, five garages, swimming pool and spa, two-story library, orchard and 1,000-bottle wine cellar. His residential empire included that of comedian Gene Wilder. old housea mid-century modern number designed by architect Robert Byrd; Musk reportedly used it as a private school for five of his children.

I sell almost all physical goods. Will not own any house.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020

And then, suddenly, with a few taps of his fingers, he reversed course. “I sell almost all of my physical possessions. I will not own a house,” he tweeted on May 1, 2020, before unloading his real estate portfolio to $127.9 million. A period of residential austerity followed. He lived in a $50,000 prototype prefab unit next to the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. “It comprises an open-plan main room, with white walls and (a) lightly stained wooden floor, which combines living room, dining room and kitchen. A small wooden table serves as his desk,” writes Walter Isaacson in his musk biography. “Humble doesn’t begin to describe its status as the primary residence of a billionaire.”

What precipitated Musk’s hyper-modest turn? Publicly, he spoke of the need to devote his time to professional activities. “Which is more important, Mars or a house?” he asked during a podcast appearance with Joe Rogan. “I like Mars, okay.” But according to Isaacson, Musk also hoped that his self-imposed austerity could help bridge a growing divide with one of his children, Xavier, whose progressive political beliefs led them to clash (Xavier s has since come out as transgender and changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson). “I hate you and everything you stand for,” Vivian sent a message to Musk as their relationship deteriorated and Musk’s campaign against the waking mind virus began.





Now, once again, Musk has turned his attention to expansion. As THE New York Times reported in October, he purchased two adjacent Austin estates for $35 million as a sort of family compound, where his children (all 11, minus Vivian) and two of their three mothers can live together. If this sounds like a modern version of traditional family values, People The magazine only added to the intrigue last week, reporting that Musk and Grimes, the Canadian singer and mother of three of Musk’s children, were looking for a similar resort in Bel-Air. It’s unclear whether their research predates Austin’s purchase or whether it suggests Musk is looking for a second compound.

What does this mean for his DC pad? Musk, I imagine, will start by playing small ball. He has a habit of crashing at friends’ houses: the Austin homes of his PayPal co-founders Luke Nosek and Ken Howery; Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s Lanai guesthouse; Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks’ San Francisco digs; and, more recently, Mar-a-Lago, where he was nicknamed the “guest who didn’t want to leave.” Maybe he’ll be couch surfing in Microstrategy co-founder Michael Saylor’s Washington Harbor studio, assembled from three adjacent units and boasting views of the Potomac — two crypto brothers plotting global domination in line. Maybe he’ll rent an apartment in CityCenter, where Stephen Miller and Hope Hicks both lived during Trump’s first term, putting him within walking distance of the White House, a plus for a man from energy efficiency sector. Or maybe he’ll go back to prefab, installing a modest box on the White House lawn (no local zoning laws apply).

Musk himself acknowledged that his government’s cost-cutting and dismantling of the deep state would lead to “temporary difficulties.” Assuming he and Trump and their considerable, shared self-esteem coexist longer than Trump and former 10-day press secretary Anthony Scaramucci, he will be ready to capitalize on the downturn in the local real estate market as a government workforce . withers. Musk’s predilection for European-inspired architecture (the Times described one of his recent purchases in Austin as a “14,400-square-foot mansion that looks like a villa plucked from the hills of Tuscany”), suggesting that McLean would be his natural setting.

But Musk has also, on several occasions, considered building his own designer offices. “What is Elon Musk’s dream house? Like some Tony Stark bullshit? Rogan asked him during one of his podcast appearances. “Yeah, definitely,” Musk replied. “You must have the dome that opens with the stealth helicopter.”

He is not a man of refined architectural tastes, with one notable exception. In 2022, after abandoning his period of austerity, Musk bought a horse farm in Austin and invited famous British architect Norman Foster, who designed Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, to design a house. “It should be like something falling from space, like a structure from another galaxy landing in the lake,” Musk suggested when they met at the site, Foster was drawing in his notebook. Or perhaps, as Isaacson reported, as Musk put it, like “a shard of glass coming out of the lake?” The ground floor could be partly submerged in water, accessible through a tunnel from another structure on the shore. As Musk later admitted of the abandoned proposal: “It’s more of an art project than a house.” »

Well, Musk can now build it in Washington DC. Maybe with a hyperloop tunnel run to the White House. This shard of glass/structure from another galaxy may be rising along the Potomac. It will be a symbol of efficiency, fantasy and wealth. A monument to the man who helped swing the election in Trump’s favor and has now arrived to transform our city. An emblem of our brave new world.