... Scott Bessent, the secretary of the Treasury, was wandering around up there too.
Sitting in a brown leather armchair in the center of this social whirl was a high-ranking official at the Department of Energy named Charles Moran. His abstruse-sounding title is associate administrator for external affairs for the National Nuclear Security Administration. What this means is that he works in the part of the Energy Department that develops, tests and keeps safe America's nuclear weapons stockpile.
But that's not why administration officials kept approaching his armchair to schmooze, or why some of the cabinet secretaries at the Ned that night seemed to be so chummy with him.
Mr. Moran, 44, is the pasha of a new power tribe in the capital: the gay men of the Trump administration.
These are the A-Gays. They're (mostly) out, they're proud (to work for President Trump) and they have big jobs inside (or alongside) this administration. They wield influence all over town, from the Pentagon to the State Department to the White House to the Kennedy Center.
"We're like Visa," Mr. Moran said. "Everywhere you want to be."
He sipped a dirty vodka martini and surveyed the room. Two Republican men waved at him from across the club. "Both gay," he explained. This was also true of the middle-aged Trump appointee who ambled over a moment later to catch up. But apparently not so of the young-looking White House aide who approached a few minutes after that. "Straight as an arrow," Mr. Moran said as the aide walked away. ...
