Trump Remade the GOP. How Do the Ultrarich Feel? | WSJ

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- Greenwich, Connecticut is a town that can tell you what the .01% is thinking. You can get to Greenwich from Manhattan by train in 40 minutes, and many of the country's richest people call it home. This is also

where I was born and raised. I'm Annie Linskey, and I'm a White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal." In this episode of "Rooted In," I visit my hometown to speak with local politicians, academics, business leaders, and campaign

donors to find out what's driving the ultra wealthy ahead of the November elections. - We have too many people who have way too much money, and we have too many people who are struggling to make ends meet. -

Greenwich plays an outsized role in national politics because it's home to some of the country's biggest donors, making it a must-visit stop for many candidates. For years, it was a bastion of old school conservatism. But like many wealthy

suburbs, it's moving to the left. This can be seen in a change in political party registration among Greenwich residents since 2016. - I think, in many ways, Greenwich is a microcosm of what's happening with the Republican Party nationally.

- We're here to understand the changing politics in Greenwich and what that means for the upcoming midterm elections. - That used to be one of the biggest houses on the road. - This one here? - No, the brick

house. - Oh, my gosh. - And now you look at it and, you know- - I mean, it's- - The guy's poverty-stricken. - Right. - Not quite, but. - Hans Isbrandtsen lived in Greenwich for most of his life.

He sailed on the winning vessel in the 1974 America's Cup and now runs a local charter company in the area. Greenwich has so many private roads that in order to really see the houses, you have to get out

on the water. What would this look like if you were driving by? - You couldn't see any of these houses 'cause you couldn't get past the guard. - Now when I was growing up, the biggest boat that I

remember was Trump's boat, the Trump Princess. - Wow, far and away. There was nothing else even close to that. - Yeah. - So Trump's house is actually right over here. - President Trump and his wife at the time,

Ivana, bought their waterfront Greenwich home in the early 1980s. Ivana kept the property after they divorced in 1990, but sold it in 1998 for $15 million. I recall Donald Trump's yacht would be parked in the middle of Greenwich

Harbor, and so that was always a big deal when Trump's boat was there. Those are sort of my earliest memory of Donald Trump who is now the person that I cover. Beyond President Trump, many politicians from both sides

of the aisle have called Greenwich home. George H.W. Bush grew up in Greenwich. His father, Prescott Bush, was a Connecticut senator. There's also Senator Richard Blumenthal, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, current Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, and his GOP challenger

in this year's election, Ryan Fazio. You are a Republican in a town that has voted at least nationally for Democrats. And can you help us understand how have you managed to balance that? - I think it's a couple

things. It's familiarity, it's presence. I grew up here and when I first ran in 2008 as for a state representative, it was an Obama year. And so, it was the second time in history that Greenwich went Democrat on

a national level. And now Republicans are not a majority here anymore. They were for years and years. - Your opponents have tried to associate you with Trump explicitly. How did you navigate that? - If you voted for him,

you have to say you voted for him. I voted for him in the three elections, but not in all the primaries. You have to know that going forward and be true to yourself. And you could see sometimes a

trend where you may have won by the biggest vote differential ever, and then the next year because of a trend, it's down to here. - Since 2019, Camillo has won four elections for first selectmen, Greenwich's version of a

mayor, including a blowout win in 2021 by 34 points. Since then, his margin of victory has shrunk. He defeated his Democratic challenger by just over 12 points in 2025. Amy Goodfriend is a prominent businesswoman in Greenwich. She was

the first female partner in Goldman Sachs' equities division. Goodfriend is a registered Republican, and while she has donated to politicians in the past, she hasn't in recent years because she says she is turned off by the overly vitriolic

nature of recent campaigns. - I just wish we could get some moderate people. Most of the people I know and most of my friends and family are moderate, but the tails have gotten so fat, and I think it's

partly we have too many people who have way too much money, and we have too many people who are struggling to make ends meet. - How do you think the town has changed? - If I had grown up

here, I'd be freaking out. There's so much wealth here. - During Trump's second term, thanks to a booming stock market, and an unprecedented AI build out, the net worth of Americans has exploded, and much of it is concentrated

at the very top income brackets. - As the "New York Times" would describe it, the Hamptons was basically in group therapy about the mayoral race. - Wealth inequality has long been a flashpoint in the left flank of the

Democratic Party. In 2026, it's fueling the rise of democratic socialists, a backlash against data centers, and tax proposals that target the billionaire class. - I'm always looking for sales. - Okay. - There are not gonna be any sales.

- I feel that they won't have a sale here right now. I think nothing is even necessarily for sale. There was not an Hermes when I was growing up. Scott McLean is a professor of political science at Quinnipiac

University. He's researched the political shifts in New England suburbs and how that's been playing out nationwide. He says that for those on the campaign trail, Greenwich is a natural spot to come and raise money. We're here on Greenwich

Avenue, which is the main sort of hub of commerce for Greenwich. When I was in Greenwich High School, we used to come to Greenwich Avenue all the time to hang out, walk around, but it is like the rest

of the city gotten a little fancier since I was in high school. How do you think Greenwich has changed in the Trump era? - His candidacy in 2016 divided the Republican Party in the town of Greenwich between MAGA

Trump supporters and leaders and the old established traditional kind of Republican that would've come from Greenwich, pro-business, low taxes, but socially liberal. And that split and that weakening of support for Donald Trump started a trend that has led

to eventually the Democrats having advantages in the town of Greenwich. - Steve Meskers from the Connecticut House of Representatives was elected eight years ago. He is the first Democrat to represent this Greenwich district since 1912. What do you

attribute the 2018 change to? - I can't speak for the Republican Party, but I think there was some fractioning among what was considered to be the "country club Republican" and the MAGA movement. - You came into office during

the first midterm elections under President Trump, and now we are approaching the final midterm elections in this Trump era. What has changed since then? - We've got a very interesting period in our lives. We have struggled through a

period of zero inflation, and with us priming the pump, trying to grow the economy back, and then an overwhelming attack of COVID, and at the same time with the coalescing of all the pressures with social media. The country,

if you were to try to be despictive, you'd say it's untethered. And the real question from my mind for all of us is will the center hold? - Greenwich is also home to what is often called the donor

class. In the most recent election cycle, Greenwich residents gave more than $46 million to campaigns and political action committees, according to Federal Election Commission filings. That ranked it above cities like Seattle and Palo Alto and just behind Miami

and Atlanta, and it's a town of just more than 60,000 people. - Greenwich is known as a kind of a political drive-through ATM. It's the stop that politicians make on their way to something else. They'll do a fundraiser

here. But I think in more recent years, it's become a symbol of the decline of the traditional Republican party, the party of the Bushes, the party of Bob Dole and Mitt Romney, and much more the party of Trump.

- What does the rest of the country have to learn from Greenwich? - I think in many ways, Greenwich is a microcosm of what's happening with the Republican Party nationally. The Republicans are having to choose now between a

MAGA direction, or a return to much more of a center right party the way it was under the two Bushes. Republicans need to widen their appeal after Trump leaves. If they wanna continue winning elections, they can't really rely

any longer on the intensity of MAGA voters to put them over the edge against a kind of a lackluster democratic party. - Even in Greenwich, prominent people say they are hyper aware that the system hasn't worked for a

lot of Americans. Some believe moderates can return the country to a more productive dialogue in the post-Trump era. You can see this in who Greenwich residents are donating to politically. Candidates who receive the most money from Greenwich residents

are mostly moderates. People like Roy Cooper, the former North Carolina governor who's running for senate as Democrat in that state. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic Senator in Georgia, and Susan Collins, Maine's GOP Senator, are near the top of the

list. Trailing much further down are Bernie Sanders, an AOC, according to campaign finance data. This doesn't capture contributions to political nonprofits, a.k.a. dark money groups that don't require disclosure or money given to state and local races from Greenwich

residents. Oh, my gosh, this is the Oval Office. Wow, the Oval Office looks a lot different than it does right now, I got to say. - No gold. - Just on the picture. - Tom Foley is the former

US ambassador to Ireland and the Republican nominee for governor of Connecticut in both 2010 and 2014. He self-financed his first campaign with about $11 million of his own money. We're focusing for this project on Greenwich, partially, because I'm

from Greenwich. It's where so many national candidates come here to raise money, and a lot of residents here are fortunate enough to be able to be donors and have chosen to participate in politics in that way. What do

you see as the role of the donor in a campaign? - Well, let's first separate donors from money. To run for office, you have to have money, it costs money. - Yes, it does. - What you're really trying

to achieve to win is name recognition. We have our First Amendment, and so very wealthy people are able to finance a campaign and arguably buy office. - These are the self-financers. - Yeah. That's not a great part of

the system, but if you go back 50 years, I think the money tended to be on the Republican side, but that's not true anymore. - Silicon Valley, a lot of these people are solidly Democrats and they write very

large checks. So this is going on on both sides. - For sure, for sure. - I don't think one side can blame that the other side's benefiting from the system. - We're still waiting to find out what comes

next after Trump's presidency. Here in Greenwich, there are concerns that recent years have created an unsustainably stratified economic system and a yearning in some quarters for a more traditional Republican party.