Earlier this month, news broke of Washington’s third most expensive home sale in the history of the city. The buyer? Not a former president or an old-money heir, but one of D.C.’s new class of political power players — Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s unsurprising for one of the world’s richest men to grow his real estate portfolio with a $23 million cash purchase. That’s a mere fraction of his estimated $185 billion net worth. Mr. Zuckerberg’s real estate has made headlines before, with reports of a doomsday bunker in Hawaii and a Lake Tahoe compound.

But the properties also reflect his ideological and aesthetic shifts. Over the years, he’s evolved from a critic of President Trump to MAGA ally. He’s abandoned his hoodie and gray T-shirt for a shearling jacket and a gold chain. Following the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump last year, Mr. Zuckerberg called the former and soon-to-be president’s reaction “badass” and visited his Mar-a-Lago estate.

His purchase of the Washington mansion comes as he lobbies the president to settle an antitrust lawsuit against Meta. Starting on Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg took the witness stand to defend his company’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Michael Rankin, the principal and managing partner of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in Washington, represented Mr. Zuckerberg in the recent sale. Mr. Rankin declined to comment on the specifics of the sale, citing NDAs, but said that the current activity in the capital’s luxury housing market is on par with past election cycles.