{"id":4149,"date":"2026-06-26T10:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2026-06-26T10:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:36:28","slug":"touring-trumps-washington-how-the-president-is-putting-his-imprint-on-the-nations-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=4149","title":{"rendered":"Touring Trump\u2019s Washington: How the president is putting his imprint on the nation\u2019s capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 America is celebrating its 250th year. And what better way to mark that anniversary than with an American summer staple \u2014 a trip to Washington, D.C.?<\/p>\n

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But visitors to the nation\u2019s capital will find that it is undergoing tremendous change, courtesy of President Donald Trump\u2019s takeover makeover. <\/p>\n

Since returning to office 17 months ago, Trump has demonstrated a continuing fixation with the city. The Republican president has slapped his image and name on buildings, torn down storied structures, altered others, started massive construction projects and deployed armed military personnel. <\/p>\n

The traditional tourist sights remain. But with slight detours, an open mind and a critical eye, the ambitious walker can see all the ways the president has pushed to remake the capital.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the United States\u2019 birthday, take a trip with The Associated Press across a changing Washington.<\/p>\n

First stop: An indefinite National Guard deployment<\/h3>\n

We start our tour at Union Station and Metro Center, the city\u2019s main transit hubs. Notice the Greco-Roman architecture of the former, the Brutalist design of the latter. Now see the ongoing, indefinite deployment of armed National Guard troops there and in many other parts of the city.<\/p>\n

National Guard members from Washington, D.C., and several states have been in the city since August 2025, deployed under an emergency order issued by Trump in what he called a bid to fight crime. Trump has portrayed the deployment as a lifeline for the city. They will be here for most, if not all, of 2026 and are expected to number 5,000 this summer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the military has deployed to the capital. Troops were in D.C. throughout the Civil War, to quell riots after Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s 1968 assassination and, famously, hours into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. <\/p>\n

But in Trump\u2019s Washington, Guardsmen at street corners and metro stations have become an increasingly normal part of the city\u2019s scenery. <\/p>\n

And no one knows when they will leave.<\/p>\n

Second stop: Scars left by DOGE<\/h3>\n

Exit Union Station, take in the view of the U.S. Capitol building and turn right down Pennsylvania Avenue. There sits a building now synonymous with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration\u2019s effort to shrink the federal government. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Agency for International Development was the first major federal agency targeted by then-DOGE leader Elon Musk in the remake of the federal government, when cost-cutting measures prompted the terminations of tens of thousands of workers. USAID spent billions on humanitarian aid worldwide and was credited with saving millions of lives over time.<\/p>\n

By eliminating 90% of foreign aid contracts, the Trump administration effectively cut some $60 billion in funding. <\/p>\n

After workers cleared their desks last February, the USAID offices on Pennsylvania Avenue were repurposed for other government uses. <\/p>\n

The shuttering of the agency also contributed to a massive increase in unemployment in the region where about one-fifth of the workforce lives. <\/p>\n

Many workers still ask: When their lives were upended, what was saved?<\/p>\n

Third stop: Trump\u2019s image staring down<\/h3>\n

Walking south along any of the numbered streets leads to Constitution Avenue and the National Mall. Banners bearing Trump\u2019s image have adorned the facades of several government buildings over the past 17 months \u2014 an uncommon practice for a sitting American president and a highly literal sign of his imprint upon the city. <\/p>\n

At the U.S. Department of the Interior, his image has equal billing with George Washington on similar banners proclaiming \u201cAmerica\u2019s First\u201d and \u201cAmerica First.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mile away, Trump\u2019s face glowers from the storied Justice Department building, a physical display of the Republican president\u2019s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him. It\u2019s also a striking symbol of the erosion of the department\u2019s tradition of independence from White House control, as the president pushes to prosecute his political adversaries. <\/p>\n

Next up: The Reflecting Pool painted \u2018American flag blue\u2019<\/h3>\n

Westward toward the Lincoln Memorial sits the recently repainted Reflecting Pool. <\/p>\n

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The site has always been a must-see on any tourist\u2019s checklist. But the Reflecting Pool, the scene of historic marches and protests, today also symbolizes Trump\u2019s drive to change Washington. <\/p>\n

Trump called the area \u201cfilthy\u201d and had workers paint it in a color he has dubbed \u201cAmerican flag blue.\u201d A Washington-based nonprofit that tried to block the move said it undermined the somber tone of the area, which sits near the memorials to Lincoln and to the Vietnam and Korean wars.<\/p>\n

Since the makeover, the pool has been fraught with problems, from runaway algae growth to dead ducks and a torn lining. Authorities say vandals have been responsible for some of the problems and arrests have been made. <\/p>\n

A walk over the Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River leads directly to the proposed future site of Trump\u2019s 20-story, gold-adorned triumphal arch. Although embroiled in a court battle, like a number of his projects, the arch has been approved by a key federal agency and survey work has begun at the site.<\/p>\n

In a city meticulously planned and rich with the symbolism that defines the nation, new construction can unsettle the carefully crafted balance.<\/p>\n

The arch, when built, will break up the intentionally designed symbolic sightline between Arlington House, once the home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the Lincoln Memorial, which symbolized the reunification of a divided nation following the Civil War. <\/p>\n

Just ahead: The Trump-Kennedy Center<\/h3>\n

Visible from the site is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts \u2014 known for much of this year as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center. <\/p>\n

Congress named the performing arts venue as a living memorial to Kennedy in 1964, the year after he was assassinated. A law explicitly prohibits its board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person\u2019s name on the building\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n

A court decision eventually stripped the center of Trump\u2019s name, but a tarp remains there, obscuring the change.<\/p>\n

Trump also added his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace, part of a broader series of tributes that has been largely unprecedented for a sitting, living president.<\/p>\n

In the middle of it all: A significantly changed White House<\/h3>\n

No tour would be complete without 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue \u2014 the White House. There, gazers can look at the construction site formerly known as the East Wing. It\u2019s now the president\u2019s ballroom-in-waiting as the courts and Congress battle over whether to build it. <\/p>\n

The White House has said the $400 million cost would be paid by private donors, but public money \u2014 around $1 billion for the entire White House complex, including the ballroom \u2014 would be used for security measures. The proposed building has also expanded to a size larger than the rest of the White House. Trump argues the ballroom is necessary for security reasons, and amplified that assertion after the attack on the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner in April.<\/p>\n

Not viewable on the tour: the area formerly known as the Rose Garden. Planted by then-first Lady Jackie Kennedy, it has been paved over into a patio.<\/p>\n

Last stop: Black Lives Matter Plaza no more<\/h3>\n

Directly north, across Pennsylvania Avenue, is the area of town formerly known as Black Lives Matter Plaza. During Trump\u2019s first term, a more defiant Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the painting and naming of the area as a remembrance of the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police. <\/p>\n

BLM Plaza became a magnet point for years of political activism. Hundreds of protests started, ended or rallied there.<\/p>\n

The plaza came down in March 2025 at Bowser\u2019s direction, spurred by threats from Congress to hold the city\u2019s funding. The decision served as an acknowledgment of a major shift in tone under Trump.<\/p>\n

Read more Russia reports one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks on its soil and annexed Crimea<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the tour, folks. Please enjoy your stay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 America is celebrating its 250th year. 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