Donald Trump's team target DC's wealthiest suburbs

The wealthy neighbourhood of Kalorama in Washington DC is getting ready for an influx of wealthy buyers.

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner - soon to be a senior adviser in the White House - have already bought a home for £4.7m ($5.6m).

Estate agent Tom Daley of Sotheby's International Realty says the President-elect's cabinet - said to have a combined net worth of £4.7bn ($5.6bn) - is providing plenty of work.

He tells Sky News: "The market has already seen that, some of the secretaries and the big positions that have been announced, those folks are coming in and buying at $10m, $5m-plus range."

Mr Daley says many of the Trump nominees want luxury and, even though he raised money for Hillary Clinton, he's happy to help her opponent's transition team look for properties.

Kalorama is an odd and deeply privileged bubble, with fierce political opponents living next door to one another in a small and very exclusive corner of the capital.

As if to illustrate the point, a few hundred yards from the new Trump-Kushner residence is the house President Obama and his family will occupy while his youngest daughter finishes school.

When we drive past, labourers are busy putting up a brick wall and a newly-built hut stands ready for the Secret Service to keep watch.

Elsewhere in the city, Sheila Krumholz is trying to follow the money, but in a very different way.

As part of the OpenSecrets.org team, she is trying to track how Mr Trump’s future cabinet members are spending their money.

Big money and American politics have been inextricably linked for decades, but what makes this year different, Sheila says, are the large sums donated to Trump and his allies by some of his nominees.

Among them is Linda McMahon, founder of the WWE wrestling empire and now set to become head of the Small Business Administration.

The highly successful businesswoman - said to be worth £416m ($500m) - gave Trump and his allies more than £5m ($6m) according to OpenSecrets data obtained from government records.

On Capitol Hill, the Cabinet nomination hearings have provided plenty of drama.

But they also appear to show some of Mr Trump's nominees are at odds with him on policy.

Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, on paper looked like he might be the President-elect's biggest wildcard.

His close relationship with Vladimir Putin has rung diplomatic alarm bells in Washington.

Yet amazingly, he says he has not discussed Russia with his potential future boss.

But one of Mr Tillerson’s former colleagues at Exxon Mobil, Edward Verona, insisted there shouldn’t be any cause for concern.

Mr Verona paints an image of a deal-making, diplomatic and shrewd operator perhaps someone even more adept at making deals than Mr Trump himself?

He tells Sky News: "It's a relationship (with Mr Putin) based on mutual respect. I think the 'friendship' is overstated."

:: Watch live coverage of the inauguration on Sky News from 3pm and Sky Atlantic from 4pm on 20 January. Adam Boulton is in the US presenting a special Sky News programme - Trump: America's President - every day at midnight from now until Friday.

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