Is this the American oligarchy?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Investigative reporter Beth Reinhard first noticed it in January, when President Donald Trump’s second inauguration celebration got moved indoors because of freezing temperatures. Thousands of ticketed spectators were left to stand out in the cold, but at least 17 billionaires, collectively worth more than $1 trillion, claimed coveted seats in the Capitol Rotunda — a historic concentration of wealth that seemed to herald a new class of American oligarchs, there to celebrate the inauguration of the 47th president.
In the months since that cold January day, Reinhard and her colleagues discovered that spending on elections by the richest 100 Americans crossed the $1 billion threshold for the first time, and that $1 out of every $13 spent in last year's election was donated by a handful of the wealthiest Americans.
Today on “Post Reports,” Reinhard speaks with host Colby Itkowitz about how billionaires have driven up campaign costs and, as a result, how they may be reshaping American democracy.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was edited by Elana Gordon and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Patrick Caldwell.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight... |
| 0:04.0 | And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke. |
| 0:08.4 | A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old. |
| 0:11.8 | And a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago. |
| 0:16.3 | How can a 101-year- old woman fall in love again? |
| 0:23.8 | Listen to heavyweight wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:32.4 | What would you say if someone called you an oligarch? |
| 0:35.3 | How would you feel about that? |
| 0:38.8 | I'd say, thank you. I grew up in Harlem and I worked very hard. |
| 0:43.5 | I worked seven days a week, 70 hours, 80 hours a week for the last 50 years. |
| 0:49.1 | I deserve it. |
| 0:50.7 | This is Beth Reinhardt, an investigative political reporter at The Post, speaking with John |
| 0:56.8 | Katsimatitis. Katsimatitis is a billionaire who made his fortune in oil and real estate, |
| 1:02.6 | and last year he donated $2.4 million to help elect Donald Trump and other Republicans. |
| 1:09.7 | Best asking him how he'd respond to someone calling him an oligarch because for months she's |
| 1:14.1 | been reporting on how the ultra-rich, like him, are donating record amounts to politics. |
| 1:19.8 | Some, especially on the left, argue that it's moving American democracy closer to an oligarchy. |
| 1:26.0 | We tend to think of oligarchy, tend to associate it with |
| 1:30.0 | countries like Russia, where you have, you know, a small group of very rich, corrupt politicians |
| 1:36.0 | running the show. But I wanted to ask a billionaire, what does he make of that? |
| 1:43.2 | I want you to understand that. |
| 1:45.2 | It's different. |
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