From a Washington Post story by Roxanne Roberts headlined “Washington’s establishment hopes a Biden presidency will make schmoozing great again”:
Washington is exhausted. Washington is optimistic. Washington is desperate for change. ¶ The aristocracy of this city is ready to move on, daring to hope that the last four years was a fever that finally broke and life can get back to normal. Normal, as in a respect for experience and expertise. Normal, as in civility and bipartisan cooperation. Normal, as in not wanting to punch someone in the face. ¶ At the center of this hope is President-elect Joe Biden, moderate by nature, attuned to the rhythms of the town, eager to bring people back together. . . .
Sure, not everybody is going to kiss and make up overnight. But Washington’s elite social world can pivot faster than a prima ballerina. With the promise of a coronavirus vaccine and a call for comity, it’s ready, willing and able to press the reset button and start fresh. . . .
For the last four years, the tone from the White House was contemptuous of Washington, dismissing the permanent establishment — the longtime politicians and former administration officials who call it home — as the “swamp” or “deep state.” The social arbiters, traditionally respectful of a new administration, quickly found themselves between a Trump and a hard place: To invite or not to invite?. . .
Without Trump, the White House correspondents’ dinner — typically a night of mutual goodwill between the administration and the press that covers it — became an awkward defense of the First Amendment, sometimes tense (when comedian Michelle Wolf eviscerated Sarah Sanders), sometimes lackluster (when Ron Chernow was recruited to speak the following year).
Back to normal will mean more state dinners, a prestigious and glamorous way of reestablishing global ties. And it means that Washington events traditionally attended by the president and first lady for the better part of five decades — the Honors, the Alfalfa dinner, the Gridiron, the Ford’s Theatre gala and the correspondents’ dinner — will likely return to their former glory.
The Bidens are not what anyone would call party people — they support causes dear to them, but have never been regulars on Washington’s social map. “These are people who go to things because they think it’s their responsibility to show up, not because they’re looking to be seen,” says a former ambassador.
But Joe Biden’s 47 years in Washington will be a huge plus. “The president-elect has a great number of friends who are Republicans that he served with,” says Ambassador Capricia Marshall, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations and author of “Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You.” “And he will be inviting them into the White House because that’s how you get work done: creating those relationships in these social atmospheres, making people feel invited and welcomed.”. . .
When President Trump first moved into the White House, there were the traditional overtures extended to him and his administration to attend exclusive private dinners. Washington has always had a soft spot for titles, if not the man. Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner were expected to be the middlemen in this deal, bringing together her bombastic father and the city’s social elite in a gesture of civility.
The hosts wanted to be gracious, but the Trumps wanted loyalty — whatever that was supposed to mean — and made even longtime Republicans uncomfortable. The invitations soon dried up; Trump’s Washington’s social life revolved around his golf games and his acolytes at the Trump hotel.
A number of GOP insiders stopped entertaining altogether, fearing even an offhand criticism by anyone at the party would get back to Trump and result in the kind of withering tweetstorms directed at senators John McCain and Mitt Romney. . . .
Much will be written about the silence of Republicans during the Trump years, but suffice to say: Washington gets self-preservation. Everyone is officially thrilled when their party is in power, and bipartisan when it’s not.
And yes, the classic friendly-rivals dinner party will be back, likely bigger than ever, with VIP guests from the Biden administration, a few formers from the Obama crowd, a senator or two seated next to a Supreme Court justice. Washington has a front-row seat to history in the making; one of the pleasures is watching politicians tell war stories and debate in an informal setting. . . .
The jury is out on whether any of the Trump officials will make the leap to Washington’s permanent A-list. . . .
Most won’t; a few might. The president and his family will not be welcomed back, many insiders say privately, nor will most of his team. “I think that all of those people who stuck with him and were his apologists to the end and his enablers are going to be treated with extreme negative prejudice,” says a former George W. Bush appointee. Senior staffers in Trump’s White House are already making calls, asking for help in landing new jobs — and they’re not getting those calls returned. Someone like senior adviser Stephen Miller will probably still get booed in public; no one in elite social circles wants anything to do with him.
Pragmatism almost always wins the day: Trump loyalists (Pence, Cruz, et al.) hoping to run for president in 2024 will still want to curry favor with well-connected former officials, and the city’s conservatives won’t want to freeze out their access to a future White House. Money always sands the rough edges. . . .
So it goes, as it has always gone. Washington never forgets, sometimes forgives, and carries on.
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Roxanne Roberts is a reporter covering Washington’s social, political and philanthropic power brokers. She has been at The Washington Post since 1988, working for the Style section as a feature writer and columnist.
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