Washington, D.C. is being remade under President Donald Trump through renovations, construction projects, altered landmarks and a continuing military presence that have reshaped the capital and the visitor experience during the United States’ 250th year. Since returning to office 17 months ago, Trump has slapped his image and name on buildings, torn down storied structures, altered others, started massive construction projects and deployed armed military personnel.
Who Gets the City, Who Gets Policed
Visitors can still see the traditional tourist sights, but the capital now includes an indefinite National Guard deployment, changes linked to the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump imagery on government buildings, a repainted Reflecting Pool, a proposed triumphal arch, a renamed Kennedy Center, a new ballroom project at the White House and the removal of Black Lives Matter Plaza. The city’s public spaces are being reorganized from above, with the people who live and move through them left to absorb the consequences.
At Union Station and Metro Center, the city’s main transit hubs, armed National Guard troops have been deployed since August 2025 under an emergency order issued by Trump, who said it was a bid to fight crime. Trump has portrayed the deployment as a lifeline for the city. The troops are expected to number 5,000 this summer and will be in the city for most, if not all, of 2026. National Guard members from the district and several states have been in the city since August 2025. The military has deployed to Washington before, including throughout the Civil War, after Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination and hours into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The Bosses’ Cleanup Crew
Along Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Agency for International Development became associated with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government. Then-DOGE leader Elon Musk targeted USAID, and 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. By eliminating 90% of foreign aid contracts, the Trump administration effectively cut some $60 billion in funding. After workers cleared their desks in February 2025, the USAID offices on Pennsylvania Avenue were repurposed for other government uses. The shuttering of the agency also contributed to a massive increase in unemployment in the region where about one-fifth of the workforce lives.
Banners bearing Trump’s image have adorned the facades of several government buildings over the past 17 months. At the Department of the Interior, his image has equal billing with George Washington on banners proclaiming “America’s First” and “America First.” A mile away, Trump’s face appears on the Department of Justice building, which the article describes as a physical display of Trump’s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him and as a symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control.
Monuments, Makeovers, and Manufactured Consent
Westward toward the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool has been repainted in a color Trump called “American flag blue” after he called the area “filthy.” A Washington-based nonprofit tried to block the move, saying it undermined the somber tone of the area near the memorials to Lincoln and to the Vietnam and Korean wars. Since the makeover, the pool has had problems including runaway algae growth, dead ducks and a torn lining. Authorities said vandals were responsible for some of the problems and arrests have been made. The National Park Service said the liner was intentionally cut with a sharp razor or knife.
Across the Potomac River, survey work has begun at the proposed future site of Trump’s 20-story, gold-adorned triumphal arch. The arch has been approved by a key federal agency but is embroiled in a court battle. When built, it would break up the intentionally designed symbolic sightline between Arlington House, once the home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the Lincoln Memorial.
Visible from that site is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, known for much of this year as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center. Congress named the 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 or from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior. A court decision eventually stripped the center of Trump’s name, but a tarp remains there obscuring the change. Trump also added his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace, part of a broader series of tributes described as largely unprecedented for a sitting, living president.
At the White House, the East Wing has become a construction site for the president’s ballroom-in-waiting as the courts and Congress battle over whether to build it. The White House said the $400 million cost would be paid by private donors, but public money — around $1 billion for the entire White House complex, including the ballroom — would be used for security measures. The proposed building has expanded to a size larger than the rest of the White House. Trump says the ballroom is necessary for security reasons, and he amplified that assertion after the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. The area formerly known as the Rose Garden, planted by then-first lady Jackie Kennedy, has been paved over into a patio.
Across Pennsylvania Avenue, the area formerly known as Black Lives Matter Plaza was removed in March 2025 at Mayor Muriel Bowser’s direction after threats from Congress to hold the city’s funding. During Trump’s first term, 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. The plaza became a magnet point for years of political activism, with hundreds of protests starting, ending or rallying there. Its removal reflected a major shift in tone under Trump.