Trump’s Orders Delay CFTC Effort to Get Out of $21 Million Lease

Even before Donald Trump retook the White House and Elon Musk’s DOGE fanned out across government, the CFTC was on board with reducing its real estate footprint, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

It agreed to trade its cavernous DC headquarters, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and grand meeting hall, for smaller, more utilitarian space three miles away. But now the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has found itself stymied by construction delays and conflicting mandates from the White House.

The effort to slash the agency’s $21 million annual rent has run into Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order requiring federal workers to ...