President Donald Trump claimed the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which cost nearly $15 million to renovate, had been damaged by vandals.
But in a court filing Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the damage was caused by a “botched installation.” Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI. | License Photo
July 31 (UPI) — Trump administration prosecutors on Friday moved to dismiss the felony case against U.S. Olympian David Hearn, admitting that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.”
Hearn, 67, was indicted by a federal grand jury early July on accusations that he purposefully ripped up a piece of the recently-installed blue sealant from the pool’s bottom.
President Donald Trump claimed the pool, which cost nearly $15 million to renovate, had been damaged by Hearn and other vandals.
But in a court filing Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she had been misled by the Interior Department into believing “nearly all of the damage” was done by vandals.
In charging Hearn, Pirro had said she had “tremendous evidence” that he committed a felony that could have landed him in prison for 10 years.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism,” Pirro wrote in court papers, The New York Times reported.
Pirro added the “botched” renovation “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.”
In a statement, Hearn’s attorneys said, “The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought.”
“Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong,” the attorneys added. “The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim.
July 9 (UPI) — A federal Washington, D.C., planning agency advanced plans Thursday night for President Donald Trump‘s 250-foot triumphal arch, clearing a key procedural hurdle toward construction despite staunch opposition from historic preservation groups.
The National Capital Planning Commission approved preliminary site and building plans in an 8-1 vote, with three members voting present, during a meeting at its Washington headquarters.
The sole objector, Evan Cash, representing D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson on the panel, said he would not vote in its favor. He said the plans would “have the effect of upending decades of NCPC practice and thee century-old height framework.”
According to the proposed plans, the arch would be constructed across the Potomac River in Virginia. At 250 feet tall and 166 feet wide, it would be twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial.
Rob Nieweg, senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, also objected to the project.
Nieweg told the commission that the arch would “overwhelm” nearby historic landmarks, including the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington House and Memorial Bridge, while being inconsistent with “the solemn character of Arlington National Cemetery.”
“Each new rendering submitted for this proposal is totally inappropriate in its scale and location,” he said.
“The new images clearly show that the arch blocks the view of the Lincoln Memorial from vantage points on the Virginia side. It looms larger on the skyline than everything other than the Washington Monument. From the District side, placing the arch in the foreground completely overpowers the sacred rolling wooded hills and rows of white grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery.”
The vote comes after the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved a modified design of the arch in May. A final vote on the plan will take place at the September commission meeting, NCPC Chair Will Scharf said.
“It’s disappointing that the NCPC approved the preliminary site and building plans for the Monumental Arch today, and we remain strongly opposed to its scale and locations,” the National Trust for Historic Preservation told UPI in an emailed statement.
Trump proposed the arch as he has sought to remake the capital in his own image, including plans for a new White House ballroom and renaming the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to include his name, among others. Several of those efforts have been met with lawsuits.
Olympic canoeist David Hearn departs the Moultrie Courthouse after pleading not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Thursday. Hearn was indicted on July 2 on one count of destruction of property of more than $1,000 for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON — As America’s 250th birthday arrives this weekend, President Trump’s mark is clearly visible on Washington.
Visitors to the nation’s capital are being met with cranes hanging over the White House and construction at the site of the demolished East Wing. Fences crisscrossing the National Mall to hem in the Great American State Fair have blocked the famed sightline from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
Some fountains newly sparkle as a result of Trump’s renovations. National Guardsmen patrol the sidewalks. The partisan flavor of the Trump-aligned Freedom 250 organization’s events is on display, and the fireworks show Saturday will feature a rally-style speech from Trump, with fireworks reportedly pushed back to 11 p.m.
President Trump examines the maintenance work Wednesday on the exterior of the White House.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
The memorial’s Reflecting Pool, where fireworks will be set off Saturday, was barricaded from the public earlier than usual after onlookers flocked last week to see the algae and peeling paint that followed Trump’s renovation, and Trump accused vandals of tampering with it.
“You don’t have a sense of ‘land of the free’ here,” said Melissa McFarlane, 61, standing along the fencing on the Mall. She said she was born in Silver Spring, Md., and she grew up watching July 4 fireworks on the Mall with her parents.
She recalled the nation’s 200th anniversary celebrations as “open and inviting” but said this year’s “heavy-duty fencing” and the presence of National Guardsmen made it feel different.
“It’s majorly disorganized, which is weird for our country,” McFarlane added.
A sign outside Lafayette Park near the White House.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
Trump has fixated on making changes to the nation’s capital in his second term, declaring in an early executive order that his administration would make the district “safe and beautiful.” Some of the renovations have been successful; fountains are running anew, including the long-dormant cascading water feature at the city’s popular Meridian Hill Park.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday on “Fox & Friends” that more than 50 parks and circles have been restored and 22 fountains, along with repairs to lights on the National Mall.
“President Trump should be thanked for all he is doing to leave things better than he found them for the good of our great nation,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement. “D.C. residents and visitors are experiencing working fountains, clean parks and safe streets across the district for the first time in decades, all thanks to President Donald J. Trump.”
On Sunday, the president took a tour of some of his construction sites, walking through Lafayette Park with Burgum before traveling to the East Potomac golf club he plans to renovate, which sits on federal land. Trump walked part of the property and inspected blueprints in view of reporters; he was then driven by the site where he wants to erect a marble arch.
Over the weekend, he posted on Truth Social about his improvements to the city in a post about D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, casting it as a “Safe and Prestigious Community” that is now at risk of being “destroyed” by Lewis George.
“I have worked too hard to make Washington, D.C., the Envy of the World, with almost No Crime, and a Beautification process that has been second to none,” Trump wrote.
Construction crews build scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center on June 13 before removing President Trump’s name from the venue’s exterior.
(Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
Involvement by presidents in the city’s plan goes back to George Washington, said Matthew J. Bell, an architecture professor at the University of Maryland. That is not unusual, nor is it strange for cities, including Washington, to change over time, he said.
“It’s probably more a matter of timing in terms of inconvenience for people coming for the Fourth,” Bell said of the ongoing construction. “If there had been a more coordinated plan for some of these things … it probably could’ve been managed better.”
At the National Mall, the fencing design for the state fair drew head shakes and confusion from some tourists. Visitors are corralled into a walkway by the Freedom 250-branded fencing on one side and low metal barriers on the other.
It’s normal for fencing to be used to control foot traffic for events on the mall, said Charles A. Birnbaum, chief executive of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, but he perceived the problem as slapdash placement, including of the Ferris wheel, which was put on the mall’s axis.
“Things are being plopped down,” said Birnbaum, whose organization sued the administration over the repainting of the Reflecting Pool. “It speaks to what Trump is doing at the ballroom, what he’s proposed [with] the arch — he’s just plopping these things down in major view sheds that have major historical and cultural significance.”
People walk past the Ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.
(Jen Golbeck / Associated Press)
The fountains in Lafayette Park are running again near the White House on June 23.
On Monday, McFarlane and two friends were outside the fencing, leaning against the metal barriers in front of the Department of Agriculture, which faces the National Mall.
“It’s a little too secure,” said one of them, John, 60, who was visiting from Burbank and declined to give his last name.
He gestured over the barrier to a manicured plot with shady benches. “Here’s the People’s Garden,” he said, reading its sign, “and we can’t go in.”
A construction crane works on the White House ballroom on Monday.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
Visitors take photos Tuesday of a model of President Trump’s proposed marble arch at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)
Early-morning joggers observer the refilling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 5.
(John McDonnell / Associated Press)
The anniversary celebrations also come on the heels of the reflecting pool controversy. Last week, after chunks of paint were spotted in the water, Trump blamed vandals for tampering with the pool and said people had been arrested at the site. Two dead ducks were found in a pond about 250 feet away from the pool.
The area last week was surrounded by surveillance cameras and patrolled by National Guardsmen as lifelong resident John Cates strolled the area.
“It’s kind of creepy,” Cates said about the security cameras mounted around the pool. “It is unnecessary that we have to have this pond deemed a high security risk. That is weird.”
The area was fenced off at the end of last week. Fencing normally occurs in preparation for the July 4 fireworks show, but it went up “a couple days early to protect the pool,” Burgum said in the Fox News interview. He said seven people had been arrested in connection with the pool.
Tom Ayers, 34, was disappointed to find the fences already up on Monday. He traveled with his father from Wisconsin for the 250th, but they were finding it difficult to get around the Mall and they were upset to see the East Wing gone.
When they reached Lafayette Park, where the fencing had yet to be removed, they were again disappointed by the obscured view of the White House. Ayers’ father recalled a different scene in 1976, when he visited as a child for the nation’s bicentennial.
“I was kind of hoping for a summer similar to that,” Ayers said, “but overall, it seems nowhere close.”
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos in Washington contributed to this report.
June 26 (UPI) — The District of Columbia and the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday settled a lawsuit over the wrongful arrest of a man for protesting the National Guard’s presence in the capital.
Sam O’Hara, who was arrested last year for repeatedly playing the “Imperial March” — Darth Vader‘s theme music in the Star Wars movie franchise — behind members of the Guard who were on patrol in the District, will be paid an undisclosed amount of money in exchange for dropping his lawsuit.
The ACLU filed the finalized settlement on behalf of O’Hara on Friday, ending a months-long negotiation with officials in Washington, D.C., and its Metropolitan Police Department, but a suit against the Ohio National Guard sergeant who had him cuffed and detained was still in litigation, USA Today reported.
“Our right to free speech grants us the freedom to criticize the government,” Scott Michelman, legal director for the ACLU’s Washington, D.C., chapter, told The New York Times.
“Government officials don’t have to like it, but they can’t punish someone for their speech,” Michelman said, noting that O’Hara’s settlement was “not a significant amount” and that the number will not be disclosed.
O’Hara had for months been protesting President Donald Trump‘s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., by playing Vader’s theme music toward members of the Guard and recording the interactions.
On Sept. 11, however, an Ohio National Guard sergeant told O’Hara that if he continued his protest the MPD would be called to “handle” the situation.
When O’Hara ignored the command, MPD officers were called to the scene and handcuffed him in an effort to end the protest and accused him of harassing members of the Guard, but later released him without charges.
In a statement, O’Hara said the law enforcement effort to end his protest “ultimately backfired and brought more attention to the unjust deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.”
“This settlement serves as a reminder that constitutional freedoms are worth defending, especially when those in power would prefer we stay quiet,” O’Hara said.
The MPD said in a statement after the settlement was announced that its internal affairs bureau is investigating the incident, but also noted that its department policies would not change.
“MPD recognizes the importance of upholding First Amendment rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and is dedicated to facilitating lawful demonstrations while maintaining public safety and order,” the department said in its statement.
Residents keep with their normal routine and run past National Guard troops on the National Mall near the Washington Monument on August 12, 2025. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
GREENBELT, Md. — Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally retaining classified information, sealing a deal with federal prosecutors that could allow him to avoid a prison term.
Bolton, who became an outspoken critic of President Trump after serving in the Republican’s first administration, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28 by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Greenbelt, Md.
Bolton pleaded guilty to a single count of illegally retaining classified information. His plea agreement with the Justice Department may enable him to avoid time behind bars, but the judge ultimately will decide his punishment.
The plea agreement recommends capping any prison sentence at five years but the judge isn’t bound by that part of the deal. Bolton can withdraw his guilty plea if the judge issues a longer prison sentence or a fine greater than $2.25 million.
Bolton was charged last October with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes that he shared with relatives as he wrote a memoir about his career in government.
Other Trump adversaries have been charged with federal crimes during his second term in the White House. While some of those cases have collapsed under judicial scrutiny and amid claims of political retribution, Bolton didn’t mount a vigorous defense against his charges before cutting a deal.
FBI agents searched Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C., office last August, but the investigation began before Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Bolton served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before getting pushed out in 2019. He later published a book called “The Room Where it Happened” that presented an unflattering portrait of Trump’s leadership.
The Trump administration fought unsuccessfully to block the book’s release, claiming it contained classified information that could jeopardize national security. Trump derided Bolton as a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”
Bolton’s indictment focused on notes that he shared with his wife and daughter rather than the contents of his book. After sending one document, Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives, “None of which we talk about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhhhh,” prosecutors said.
WASHINGTON — As Janeese Lewis George paves a path to the mayor’s office in Washington, D.C., she’s told voters they could have it all.
Her unapologetically expansive, left-wing agenda includes subsidized or even free childcare, increased down payment assistance for homebuyers and community resources to reduce crime, plus a promise to aggressively confront President Trump’s attempts to reshape the nation’s capital.
“People are tired of hearing what government can’t do. They want to hear what government can do,” Lewis George said in an interview before the city’s primary, where she defeated her Democratic opponents and positioned herself to win the general election in November in a city dominated by Democrats.
Lewis George’s victory signals a break with a quarter-century of centrist governance in Washington, and it puts her in the vanguard of democratic socialists who have ascended in urban politics over the last year. Zohran Mamdani toppled Andrew Cuomo, the scion of a political dynasty, on his way to becoming New York City mayor. Katie Wilson won an upset victory to lead Seattle last fall. And this month, Nithya Raman clinched a spot in the November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
All of them are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA. The political organization has seen its membership ranks swell from a few thousand to more than 100,000 nationwide over the last decade after an influx of younger Americans joined following the presidential bids of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, also a self-described democratic socialist.
There’s little sign of national coordination among the candidates, and it’s unclear whether voters are gravitating toward their promises of improved government services, their vows to fight the Trump administration or their critiques of capitalism.
But from coast to coast, confrontational progressives are advancing in mayoral races. City leaders can draw outsized attention for their successes and failures, and democratic socialists will be under pressure from residents to deliver on their vows for a new kind of governance. Whether that translates to national politics is a next test for their movement.
“They are all channeling a displeasure with a status quo and a serious desire for economic populism that the establishment Democratic Party hasn’t been preaching,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist with Fight Agency, a political consulting firm that strategized Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.
Stern added that Democratic voters appeared more willing to support the most progressive candidate in mayoral races rather than in contests for the U.S. House. Candidates like Mamdani and Raman, Stern said, are “daring voters to dream and fall in love not just with the individual candidates but also the political process as a whole.”
A rising left navigates America’s urban challenges
The trend of progressives surging in urban areas may have limits for its broader impact on Democratic politics. Democratic mayors in cities including Atlanta, Houston, Miami and San Francisco won on relatively moderate platforms in recent years.
Progressive have also faced noteworthy challenges. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was endorsed by the city’s DSA chapter during his 2023 mayoral run but has since faced criticism from both moderate and liberal local leaders on issues such as immigration, the local budget and public safety. Recalls and public pressure ousted progressives elected to district attorney offices in multiple jurisdictions over the last five years, when criminal justice reform efforts ran into dissatisfaction over public disorder following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump’s hardline immigration and law enforcement tactics have also become a challenge for liberal cities. The president’s agenda poses an especially serious threat to Washington, D.C., because of its status as a federal territory.
“Maybe we take back Washington and run it on a federal basis,” Trump told reporters this month when asked about the potential election of a democratic socialist as the district’s mayor. “We won’t put up with it.”
But progressives hope the current wave of anti-Trump furor in deep blue cities across the country will help buoy the chances of those on the hard left.
“It’s not folks looking for the leftmost option so much as looking for a candidate who’s gonna be on their side,” said Ravi Mangla, speaking for the left-wing Working Families Party. The party often endorses the same candidates as the DSA and is readying to target more mayoral offices in the country’s biggest metropolises this fall and in 2028.
“It’s less about whether you are on the right or on the left so much as whether you are willing to punch up at the powerful,” he added.
Mamdani and Lewis George are both self-described “sewer socialists” who emphasize the need for responsive government services rather than critiques of market economics. The phrase recalls the socialist Gilded Age mayors whom critics derided as too preoccupied with managing public works projects.
The term’s revival is partly a strategic move to align leftist ideas with concerns over affordability and the economy, voters’ top concern in the midterm elections, and shift the public perception of democratic socialists from firebrands who support radical policies to independent-minded public servants.
“This is absolutely a change election and I’m excited to bring the change that people want, which is really putting people first in the city and having the moral clarity and courage to stand up to Trump,” Lewis George said.
For voters the ‘socialist’ label did not seem to matter
While conservatives have used the “socialist” label to attack Democrats as extreme or incompetent, some D.C. voters appeared ambivalent before Tuesday’s primary.
Several lifelong residents said they believed Lewis George was a “fighter” but didn’t think she’d have much of an impact on the local economy, given the city’s status as a federal district.
“I go back and forth on my own labels and whether I am supportive of that movement or not, but I am supportive of making D.C. more affordable,” Owen Fitzgerald, a University of Maryland graduate student, said of his support for democratic socialism.
Fitzgerald voted for Lewis George because she would stand up to Trump and said he’d first learned of her campaign from friends in his neighborhood. But he didn’t know she was a democratic socialist until he saw news reports describing her with the label.
“It sends a cultural message to this administration that the people who are surrounding them in the capital are opposed to their platform, opposed to their political agenda, and I think that it will send a message, both nationally and internationally,” Fitzgerald said.
WASHINGTON — The interim chief of the Capitol Police apologized Tuesday for failing to prepare for what became a violent insurrection despite having warnings that white supremacists and far-right groups would target Congress.
Yogananda Pittman, in prepared testimony before Congress, said the Capitol Police “failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours.” She listed several missteps: not having enough manpower or supplies on hand, not following through with a lockdown order she issued during the siege, and not having a sufficient communications plan for a crisis.
“We knew that militia groups and white supremacists organizations would be attending,” Pittman wrote. “We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target.”
Her admissions come as U.S. law enforcement investigates a number of threats aimed at members of Congress and as the second impeachment trial of former President Trump gets underway. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that authorities have detected ominous chatter about killing legislators or attacking them outside the Capitol.
Trump supporters tore down fences and broke through doors and windows after an event in which the now-former president called on them to “fight” and “stop the steal.”
Inside the building, Congress was certifying the victory of President Biden. Five people died, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. A sixth person, another Capitol Police officer, later died by suicide.
The day after the riot, then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said his force “had a robust plan established to address anticipated 1st Amendment activities.” Sund has since resigned, as have the sergeants at arms for the House and Senate.
Officers who have spoken to the AP described being overrun by insurrectionists who in many cases were more armed than they were. The officers said they were given next to no plan beforehand or communication during the riot.
There are conflicting accounts of why the Capitol Police did not have more backup. Pittman’s statement provoked a new round of finger-pointing.
In her testimony, Pittman said Sund asked the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the department, to declare a state of emergency and allow him to request National Guard support, but the board declined. The Defense Department has said it asked the Capitol Police if it needed the Guard, but the request was denied.
A member of the Capitol Police Board denied Pittman’s claim after her testimony was released. J. Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, said that Sund didn’t ask him for help and that there was “no record of a request for an emergency declaration.”
Several law enforcement and congressional reviews are underway.
Both Pittman and Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant at arms, told Congress on Tuesday that they need stronger communications and more fortifications around the Capitol building. Blodgett called on Congress to prepare for future emergencies and offered training for any offices that requested it.
“You want people to have some level of access to the government,” said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). But he noted that it’s also important that lawmakers feel protected and positioned to respond quickly to anything that might happen.
WASHINGTON — A relentless push by President Trump to reshape Washington‘s cityscape is facing mounting resistance, threatening a slate of transformative monuments intended to cement his legacy in the nation’s capital.
Eager to see his projects completed before leaving office, Trump has responded to growing legal and political obstacles by pushing ahead, attempting to force approvals through faster than opponents can challenge them. But the scramble to fast-track construction has inflated their costs for taxpayers, imperiling his plans and amplifying his political risks as the midterm elections approach.
Urban design has become a preoccupation for Trump since the start of his second term. Cranes dot the skyline of the city, and construction fences block access to many of its most cherished parks and venues less than a month before the nation celebrates 250 years since its founding on July 4.
Cranes from the White House East Wing ballroom construction project rise from behind the U.S. Treasury Department building on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
(Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Government lawyers are defending the president’s use of the wrecking ball, arguing in court that he has unfettered power to build and destroy. Should he ever choose to tear down the Statue of Liberty, the Justice Department told a judge Friday, no one could stop him.
Yet a recent series of legal setbacks, as well as increasing Republican opposition on Capitol Hill, have cast doubt on the fate of his most lavish designs, including the construction of an imposing ballroom at the White House and the erection of a massive triumphal arch on the sightline of the National Mall.
It’s become a race against time for the president, who could soon confront a Democratic-controlled Congress armed with renewed oversight authority and subpoena power, further gumming the works of elaborate construction projects, which could stymie their completion before he leaves office.
“This is very much on the committee’s radar,” said one Democratic source with the House Oversight Committee, citing “serious concerns surrounding corruption.”
Visitors at the Mall gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial and near the Reflecting Pool, which is under renovation on Friday in Washington, D.C. President Trump dismissed criticism of the recent Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovations, rejecting claims the project amounted to merely a “paint job.”
(Roberto Schmidt / Getty Images)
Trump as ‘builder-in-chief’
Several of Trump’s more modest initiatives, referred to by the administration as beautification projects, are complete or well underway.
At the White House, a historic rose garden conceived by Jacqueline Kennedy was paved over, and its adjoining colonnade refurbished with black granite and gilded presidential portraits. The Palm Room foyer was decked in marble and chandeliers. New flagpoles fly supersized American flags on the North and South lawns.
The en suite bath of the Lincoln Bedroom in the residence has been gutted and renovated. And the Oval Office now practically drips in gold, while an adjoining study, once used by Franklin Roosevelt to scrutinize war maps and Lyndon Johnson to monitor the space race, was converted into the president’s personal swag shop.
A temporary Ultimate Fighting Championship arena constructed on the White House South Lawn is another example of how Trump is leaving a visual mark on the presidential residence. The structure, which towers over the White House, was paid for by the UFC, which is scheduled to host a series of fights on the premises.
Outside the White House complex, fountains across the city are coming back to life after decades of neglect, from DuPont Circle to Freedom Plaza and Union Station. The idyllic Logan Circle, surrounded by historic mansions, is being revitalized by the National Park Service, as is Lafayette Square, the site of an infamous clash between Trump and protesters shortly after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
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1.National Park Service Conservator for the National Mall and Memorial Parks Ali Cavicchio puts a clear coat over the recently repainted “I Have a Dream” marker at the Lincoln Memorial on June 05, 2026 in Washington, DC. The marker’s letters are carved into stairs of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood and delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963.(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)2.Members of the West Branch Area School District in Morrisdale, Pennsylvania, student marching band perform at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall on June 05, 2026 in Washington, DC.(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
In some parks, even the turf is getting a makeover.
“People are all thanking me because Washington is beautiful again,” Trump told reporters last week. “The parks are open, we changed the grass. You know, grass has a life, also. Like people, grass has a life, and that grass hasn’t changed in 70 or 80 years.”
On Friday morning, several people sat by the restored cascading fountain at Meridian Hill Park. They walked their dogs, read books and exercised by the water.
Jean Luc, 33, was one of them. As he took a stroll with his 2-month-old daughter, Juno, he said it had been nice to see the government fix up the park, which he says he tries to enjoy with his daughter daily.
“It’s been nice to see the whole process,” he said. “I love it.”
President Trump displays a chart titled “Our Pool is Bigger than Skyscrapers” while discussing his renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Wednesday in the Oval Office.
(Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been painted over in “American Flag Blue” by a firm that Trump said had worked on the swimming pool at his golf club in Virginia. Millions will be spent to regild the hulking Art Deco statues that buttress Arlington Memorial Bridge. And Trump has plans to connect the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River by building a promenade, one of many projects he has said may be named after himself.
Federal contracting data show that the Virginia firm Terra Site Constructors has been awarded roughly $60 million in contracts from the National Park Service to complete work on the various fountain rehabilitation projects across the city.
Another Virginia firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, holds a contract for $14.2 million to paint the reflecting pool.
The funding for both contracts comes from the entrance fees paid by national park visitors.
“How fortunate are we to have the builder in chief?” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday in the Oval Office. “Someone who both has the vision and the understanding of how to get projects done that would make our city safe and beautiful.”
Construction continues on the White House East Wing ballroom on May 29, 2026.
(Kevin Carter / Getty Images)
‘The finest ballroom anywhere in the world’
Yet other, more controversial projects, exacting irreversible change to capital institutions, are facing greater opposition.
On Thursday, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts directed its staff to begin removing Trump’s name from its facade after a judge ruled that the attempted name change, and his effort to close the venue for two years of dramatic renovations, were illegal.
Angered by the court’s decision, Trump directed the Commerce Department to make arrangements to transfer control of the Kennedy Center to Congress. The move would give lawmakers power over the center’s operations, maintenance and management. It was originally an act of Congress that gave the Kennedy Center its name and mandate.
In other areas of the city, preservationists have successfully delayed the president’s bid to paint over the natural gray granite of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. And Republican lawmakers have refused to vote to fund the construction of a ballroom at the White House that has already laid waste to the East Wing and, if completed, would dwarf the landmark residence.
Construction crews began tearing down the East Wing in October to make way for the 90,000-square-foot facility. Trump, who built a career as a real estate developer, has frequently touted the project, gushing over the sounds of jackhammers and excavation trucks.
Construction continues on the White House South Lawn on June 1, 2026, for an upcoming UFC match. President Trump is hosting a UFC match on the White House grounds to mark the nation’s 250th birthday.
(Kevin Carter / Getty Images)
“Oh, that’s music to my ears. I love that sound,” Trump told Republican senators at a White House event last fall. “A lot of people don’t like it. When I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.”
The ballroom project was initially expected to cost $200 million, a price that has since doubled. It is being financed by private donors and Trump, who has called it a “gift to the United States.”
“We are building what will be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world,” the president said last month.
More than half of the publicly identified donors of the ballroom projects — 14 of the 27 known corporate contributors — have won new or bigger federal contracts worth more than $50 billion in the six months since construction began, according to a report released by Public Citizen, a watchdog group.
“These giant corporations aren’t funding the Trump ballroom fiasco out of the goodness of their hearts,” said Jon Golinger, a public policy advocate at Public Citizen and author of the report. “They have massive interests before the federal government and they hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment, from the Trump administration.”
White House military aides stand next to the giant mirror that hangs along the Rose Garden Colonnade at the White House on May 21, 2026.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
The White House has challenged the report’s assertions, saying critics of how the project is being funded are “only people who suffer from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“President Trump is making the White House beautiful and giving it the glory it deserves at no cost to taxpayers — something everyone should celebrate,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.
The report came out as the ballroom project has faced persistent hurdles in court and Congress.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop construction, arguing the administration had not followed the legally required review process and had not secured congressional approval. In March, a federal judge halted aboveground construction, but an appeals court quickly allowed work to resume through June while the case proceeds.
On Friday, the panel heard the case and expressed skepticism about Trump’s push to build the ballroom without congressional approval.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans dropped a proposal to set aside $1 billion in security funding for the ballroom after several GOP senators said it lacked the votes to pass.
Trump has insisted the funding is not necessary to complete the project, though he said it would help secure the complex. Without it, he told reporters last month, “the White House won’t be a very secure place.”
(Los Angeles Times photo illustration; Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
Arc de Trump
The president is also seeking to build a 250-foot-tall “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River at the foot of Memorial Bridge.
Renderings show the arch would be twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial, crowned by a golden statue of Lady Liberty sporting outstretched wings. An observation deck on its roof would offer sweeping views of the city.
Preservationists have criticized the plan as disrupting a sacred sightline between the memorials to Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, designed as a statement of unity after the Civil War. Even advocates of adding an arch in Washington have criticized the size of Trump’s proposed structure as overbearing. And a group of Vietnam War veterans has sued to try to stop its construction, arguing the project lacks congressional approval and would “dishonor their military and foreign service” because it would block the view of the cemetery.
Commission of Fine Arts member Pamela Hughes Patenaude, left, hands colleague Matthew Taylor a model of President Trump’s proposed triumphal arch to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary during the commission’s public meeting at the National Building Museum in Washington on April 16, 2026.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
Despite public opposition, the National Capital Planning Commission last week advanced the project in its review process.
Trump praised the planning commission’s support, saying that “when completed, it will be, without question, the Greatest Arch of them all!”
The president has yet more plans to leave his mark — in some cases with his name, in others with his face.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has proposed a $22-billion overhaul of Dulles International Airport outside the capital that would include a new terminal brandishing Trump’s name. Limited-edition U.S. passports will feature his portrait. And the Treasury has plans to mint a $250 bill featuring Trump’s mugshot from his 2023 Fulton County arrest, pending congressional approval — an unlikely prospect.
A walkway with the numbers “45” and “47” leading to construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 19. President Trump said a military hospital and research facilities will be built on the site of his planned White House ballroom, offering more details about the scope of the sprawling, controversial project.
(Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a moment that went viral on social media, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is generating buzz over a potential run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, offered a theory on what’s driving the president.
“He’s trying to put his face on the money. He’s building a monument to himself,” Ossoff told a crowd of supporters.
“But see, Atlanta, he’s doing these things now because no one will honor him when he’s gone,” he added, “because he’s a failed president and a national disgrace.”
Wilner reported from Los Angeles and Ceballos from Washington. Times staff writer Ben Wieder contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — The last time Washington, D.C., residents chose a new delegate to Congress and a new mayor in the same election, gas was $1.33 a gallon and George H.W. Bush was president.
This fall they will do it again — under starkly different circumstances.
As the city heads toward pivotal primaries this month to pick candidates for those roles, President Trump’s influence on the nation’s capital is shaping up as a major campaign issue. The fresh slate of candidates is weighing how best to approach Trump’s Republican administration and congressional control over the heavily Democratic city’s affairs.
“It’s going to be a big sea change in city politics, no matter how the elections shake out,” said Amanda Huron, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia who teaches courses on D.C. history and politics. But Washington’s lack of full autonomy brings “all sorts of peculiarities around the city’s governance.”
Since Trump returned to office last year, the National Guard is on an open-ended deployment as part of what he calls a crime-fighting mission. He is putting his personal imprint on the city’s storied landmarks. And major cuts to the federal workforce have compounded economic pressures on the capital, which has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates.
The city has long had a unique, if fraught, relationship with the federal government: While residents can vote for their local leaders, they are limited by Washington’s status as a federal district in how much influence they can actually have on the city’s affairs. That limited autonomy has been further squeezed under Trump and his federal law enforcement takeover, launched last year.
This fall, current council members Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are the frontrunners vying to replace Mayor Muriel Bowser, elected in 2014. The leading candidates in the race to succeed long-serving congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton are Robert White Jr. and Brooke Pinto, also D.C. council members.
On June 16, primaries will be held for those roles, which in an overwhelmingly Democratic city usually dictate who will take the top spot come November.
Washington, and its elected officials, have limited autonomy
Washington, unlike other cities, does not control its fate.
What choices voters have is through a limited home rule agreement passed by Congress in 1973 that allowed residents to elect their local government leaders.
But Congress retains control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the city council. Congressional members elected by voters from thousands of miles away routinely introduce measures to impact city affairs.
That has meant local leaders must balance pressures from their constituents with the demands of Congress and the administration — an act Bowser was forced to perform repeatedly.
During Trump’s first term, she ordered the painting and naming of Black Lives Matter Plaza, just north of the White House, in 2020. Just months after Trump’s inauguration to his second term, she agreed to remove it in response to pressure from congressional Republicans.
That act, the decimation of the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency and the surge by federal law enforcement and the National Guard into the city have emerged as central themes in the election season. Right now, about 3,500 troops are in the city — a number authorities say will climb to 5,000 as the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations approach.
Trump has routinely said his intervention has made Washington “one of the safest” and most beautiful cities in the country, enjoying a historic drop in crime.
Candidates campaign on promise of resistance to Trump
George told The Associated Press that her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in D.C., which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”
McDuffie said his top priority is public safety as crime continues to be an issue. He has said he would add 1,000 police officers over four years, fully staff the 911 call center after years of chronic staffing shortages and take a public health approach to violence reduction.
“We cannot have an affordable city,” he said, “without public safety as its foundation.”
Both said they would bolster the city’s legal defenses against federal overreach and said Bowser should have been less cooperative with federal authorities as they targeted members of the city’s immigrant communities.
Alex Dodd, co-founder of Free DC, an activist group supporting city independence, said the organization endorsed George because of her willingness to be more aggressive in opposing Trump and congressional Republicans.
“When our leaders comply with this administration before being forced, they are giving this regime an enormous advantage,” he said.
Pat Wheeler, a native Washingtonian and communications consultant who served as a department head at Morgan State University, applauded Bowser for cooperating with the Trump administration on some aspects. She noted failure to do so could have sparked retribution and a loss of what little control city officials have.
“Trump can snap his finger and the whole Republican Congress will say, ‘Let’s put a federal control board over the mayor,’” she said.
Affordability and social issues also concerns
The D.C. delegate position is a nonvoting one, but it grants the nearly 700,000 people of the district, who have no other representation in Congress, a voice through speechmaking on the House floor and bill introduction.
But critics said the 88-year-old Norton was diminished during the second Trump administration and not visible enough in the fight against administration and congressional overreach on the city’s autonomy. She filed paperwork to end her campaign for reelection in January.
Norton, who has served 18 terms, has had a storied career. She and her predecessor, Walter Fauntroy Jr., both had national standing coming out of the civil rights era.
“Eleanor Holmes Norton is maybe one of the last major political figures who comes out of the civil rights movement,” said Matt Dallek, a political historian at The George Washington University. “It’s a real passing of the torch.”
The campaigns of candidates running to replace her have centered on local control, Trump and affordability. Frontrunners and council members Pinto and White have also engaged in personal skirmishes questioning the origins of campaign contributions and connections to Republicans.
Pinto told the AP her top priority for the city is self-governance, something that has “never been a true reality for the people of D.C.”
She said affordability for the middle-class and working families is another concern.
White’s campaign has said he’s “not willing to continue to see our tax dollars used to allow DC police to cooperate and conspire with federal agents to trample our constitutional rights and to terrorize our communities.”
Brenda Manley, a longtime resident of Ward 7, an area with a storied Black history across the Anacostia River, said the city was well managed despite the tensions with Trump. But she said she hoped all the candidates would spend more time on the campaign focusing on programs that are beneficial to all residents, like a tuition grant program championed by Norton or major strides made in education during Bowser’s tenure.
May 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Friday that wants to build the National Garden of American Heroes, an exhibit of statues in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C.
Trump posted on social media that the public space would include landscaping and statues of the founding fathers, military soldiers, religious leaders, civil rights figures, athletes, artists and entertainers.
“This magnificent exhibition of statues will be located in West Potomac Park, which we are transforming into one of the World’s most beautiful public spaces,” Trump posted. “Right now, it is a totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate along our Mighty Potomac River.”
The project is the latest of Trump’s announcements to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary. He has said he wants 250 statues included in the garden.
Trump has ordered other projects in Washington, D.C., including renovation of the East Wing of the White House and repainting the basin of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. These projects have drawn criticism over Trump exerting unilateral authority to put them in motion, bypassing congressional approval.
The White House has not clarified whether it will seek congressional approval for the statue garden.
The National Capital Planning Commission and Commission of Fine Arts are typically involved in reviewing projects like this in Washington, D.C.
The newly formed National Garden of American Heroes Foundation is fundraising for the garden project.
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a news conference on anti-fraud initiatives in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Daniel Heuer/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON — The electoral college vote certification was interrupted when supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, capturing the nation’s attention and threatening its democratic process.
The rioters, fueled by Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, breached the building and ran freely through its historic halls before being forced out. The violence resulted in the death of one woman and an emergency district curfew that will last until Thursday morning. Here is how the situation unfolded:
Morning rally near the White House
(Swetha Kannan / Los Angeles Times)
10:53 a.m. Eastern Standard Time: Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani incites the crowd at the “Save America Rally,” saying, “Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines are crooked, the ballots are fraudulent. And if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. So … let’s have trial by combat. I am willing to stake my reputation.”
“Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent. And if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, and lot of them will go to jail. So — let’s have trial by combat” — Giuliani pic.twitter.com/QAYvnplCj7
Between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.: Trump supporters continue to gather to protest Congress’ formal counting and certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win over President Trump.
Pro-Trump supporters gather in the nations capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral college victory over President Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/DuUn5rggzC
1:00 p.m.: As Trump speaks at the rally outside the White House, his supporters advance on the Capitol building.
1:02 p.m.: Vice President Mike Pence issues a letter saying he can’t block election results.
1:13 p.m.: Trump ends his speech at the rally with a call to march down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump closes with this: “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Ave … and we’re going to [try] to give our Republicans — the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help — we’re to try and get them kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country” pic.twitter.com/dzGgoXD8FQ
Police in riot gear clear a hallway inside the Capitol.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Around 1:20 p.m.: Mobs start to form outside the Capitol building, as Trump supporters try to break past police barriers.
2:13 p.m.: The Capitol is locked down, with no entry or exit.
NEW LOCKDOWN ORDER “All buildings within the Capitol Complex, Capitol: Due to an external security threat located on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building, no entry or exit is permitted at this time.” 1/2
2:16 p.m.: Rioters breach the Capitol building, while it is on lockdown.
Violence escalates
2:20 p.m.: Rioters bang on doors at the Capitol and break a window.
Capitol is on lockdown as protesters storm front entrance of the Capitol. They are banging on the door. They have broken the glass window. pic.twitter.com/3B8BBTkYmk
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK
2:31 p.m.: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announces curfew for 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday.
2:47 p.m.: Guards draw their guns in the House chamber.
3:00 p.m.: Rioters storm in and cheer in the Capitol Rotunda.
3:03 p.m.: Rioters are on the Senate floor.
3:13 p.m.: Trump tweets asking for peace at the Capitol.
I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!
Around 3:50 p.m.: An explosive device is reportedly found at the Republican National Committee building.
(Swetha Kannan/Los Angeles Times)
4:06 p.m.: President-elect Joe Biden makes a speech in Delaware, saying “our democracy is under unprecedented assault.”
President-elect Joe Biden called the violent protests on the U.S. Capitol “an assault on the most sacred of American undertakings: the doing of the people’s business.”
4:18 p.m.: Trump tweets a video repeating his false claims of election fraud and praising his supporters, although he encouraged them to go home. The tweet was later removed by Twitter.
“This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.” pic.twitter.com/vXcqvJ4Wek
