The United States is celebrating its 250th year. And what better way to mark that anniversary than with an American summer staple — a trip to the nation’s capital.
But visitors to Washington will find that the city is undergoing tremendous change, courtesy of President Donald Trump’s takeover makeover.
Since returning to office 17 months ago, Trump has demonstrated a continuing fixation with the District of Columbia. 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.
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.
On the eve of the United States’ birthday, take a trip with The Associated Press across a changing Washington.
First stop: An indefinite National Guard deployment
We start our tour at Union Station and Metro Center, the city’s 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.
National Guard members from the district 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.
It’s not the first time the military has deployed to the capital. Troops were in Washington throughout the Civil War, to quell riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination and, famously, hours into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
But in Trump’s Washington, Guardsmen at street corners and metro stations have become an increasingly normal part of the city’s scenery.
And no one knows when they will leave.
Second stop: Scars left by DOGE
Exit Union Station, take in the view of the Capitol and turn right down Pennsylvania Avenue. There sits a building now synonymous with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government.
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.
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.
Many workers still ask: When their lives were upended, what was saved?
Third stop: Trump’s image staring down
Walking south along any of the numbered streets leads to Constitution Avenue and the National Mall. Banners bearing Trump’s image have adorned the facades of several government buildings over the past 17 months — an uncommon practice for a sitting American president and a highly literal sign of his imprint upon the city.
At the Department of the Interior, his image has equal billing with George Washington on similar banners proclaiming “America’s First” and “America First.”
A mile away, Trump’s face glowers from the storied Department of Justice building, a physical display of Trump’s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him. It’s also a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control, as the president pushes to prosecute his political adversaries.
Next up: The Reflecting Pool painted ‘American flag blue’
Westward toward the Lincoln Memorial sits the recently repainted Reflecting Pool.
The site has always been a must-see on any tourist’s checklist. But the Reflecting Pool, the scene of historic marches and protests, today also symbolizes Trump’s drive to change Washington.
