Trump’s Washington has become unrecognizable

After several months of being away from Washington, I’d say I was shocked by what I saw upon my return to the White House — but the Trump administration doesn’t want me there and continues to fight my attempts to get into the briefing room. So, no: not shocked.

I’d say I was shocked by what I saw on Capitol Hill, but many of the loathsome legislators there long ago put decency and professionalism in its review mirror. Even young staffers, at least those who understand the concepts of the Constitution, are appalled by what they’ve seen since Donald Trump came back to town.

“It’s like all [members of Congress] want to do is to s**t in each other’s mouth,” I was told. “No one wants to work together to solve problems.”

And after two days of contentious hearings on Capitol Hill, Trump must be jealous. For once, since he returned to office, the president is not the center of attention. His staff, however, is overwhelmingly thankful for the respite. They know the danger of Trump talking. Besides, many members of Congress and Trump appointees are as shallow and demeaning as the president, so their rhetoric sounds the same. 

We saw that this week when Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick showed up on Tuesday to testify before House and Senate committees, and when Attorney General Pam Bondi — “the worst attorney general in history,” as a Republican staffer from Texas described her — appeared the following day before the House Judiciary Committee. 

For three hours, Lyons had a hard time defending ICE actions in Minneapolis before a House oversight hearing on immigration enforcement. Across Capitol Hill, Lutnick floundered while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing broadband funding and budget issues that ended up diving into the cancerous Jeffrey Epstein scandal following detailed revelations about the secretary’s connections to the convicted sex offender. Democrats, and even many Republicans, were left stunned when Lutnick admitted that he took his underage children and his wife to Epstein’s Caribbean island for lunch. 

Still, nothing was as odd as Bondi’s performance, which was unprofessional and combative. She lashed out at legislators, telling them they had no right to accuse her of breaking the law, and called Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a “washed up loser lawyer.” Many Democrats and even some Republicans told me privately that her testimony will probably help the Democrats during the fall midterm elections. 

But every one of Trump’s people so far this week have probably helped Democrats. Republicans are wallowing in overconfidence, ignoring reality and are their own worst enemies. 

When a dog gets busy chasing a moving tire, it’s easy to miss the car attached to it until it is too late. That’s what the Republicans look like to me. And in the process, they’ve made the very city of Washington unrecognizable. At least that’s the thought that occurred to me as I walked in the snow to the White House, and then from Union Station to the Capitol and Supreme Court.

Trump has told us on numerous occasions how safe the District of Columbia is these days due to the presence of the National Guard and how he’s “cleaned up” the city. He’s told us it is safe to go to restaurants — “like never before” — and how people can walk the streets safely now. 

Having lived in the area for the last 30 years, I can tell you that Washington has always been safe to travel through — especially near the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and most dining establishments. Where there are pockets of poverty there is crime, but that’s not unlike any other large city.

When I returned this week to a slate full of hearings in Congress and a Tuesday presidential press briefing, I didn’t think D.C. looked like a peaceful, safe city. I saw tall fences going up once again — this time for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit. I saw federal troops stationed at several Metro stations and on many street corners. I talked with Uber and taxi drivers who are suffering because of all the Department of Government Efficiency firings. I spoke with restaurant workers who said business has been unusually light. I saw a city without its energy. A city hollowed out. A city under siege.

When Trump says you can find a table at a restaurant, he’s not kidding. Less business. Fewer people. Less energy. As a city, Washington seems to have grown tired of Trump. Certainly the senators and House members have. 

And while the District seems tired, Trump seems more so. It doesn’t even seem like the president is trying his hardest to lie to us anymore. He just repeats the same lies with less energy, as if he too has grown weary of his own rhetoric. He’s telling us to turn the page on the Epstein scandal. But he’s on that next page too. 

After meeting in private with Netanyahu on Wednesday, Trump didn’t even bother to compete with Congress for attention. He didn’t do a bilateral press conference. He didn’t come out in public and speak at all. He was content with a post on Truth Social. “There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” he said of his meeting with Netanyahu. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be. Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them.”

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It was a low-energy Trump who showed up on Thursday in the Roosevelt Room with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to announce he was repealing the federal government’s authority to regulate climate change. The landmark shift, Zeldin said, marked “the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.” He added that “the price of a newer, safer vehicle was too high.” Cheap, unsafe vehicles for everyone? 

Well, billionaires will be fine. A lethargic Trump prattled on, saying he was proud of himself for supposedly reducing prices: “And now they’re coming down by — depending on, you could say, 500, 600, 700% — depending on the way you want to — or you could say 80%, it doesn’t matter.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., coming out of a vote on Department of Homeland Security funding, told me Thursday that nothing will change “as long as Trump is president,” and that Trump is a mountain of contradictions — saying what he wants, when he wants, with little care for reality. 

He’s for the Second Amendment. But he’s going to get the guns. He’s for the First Amendment, but he doesn’t want to hear anything he doesn’t like. 

“I think he’s running out of steam,” a few of my D.C. happy hour comrades confessed Wednesday after the hearings, “Or he’s really sicker than he lets on.”

Since the National Rifle Association rebuked his statement about confiscating guns following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis, Trump has been seen very little. Maybe it’s just the politics. 

By Wednesday afternoon, the president had apparently decided to try to bring some of his verve and bombast to the White House’s East Room. He showed up to get a trophy for being “The Undisputed Champion of Coal” from the Washington Coal Club, an industry lobbying group. It means about as much as his FIFA Peace Prize, but Trump loves getting trophies, so he thanked everyone and said, “We love clean, beautiful coal.” He bragged about his “nice easy life” and told audience members that America is still the “hottest country.”

He sounded flat. Even when his administration announced good job numbers Wednesday, it sounded flat. “Who can believe them?” SiriusXM radio host Dean Obeidallah asked on his show Wednesday. “He fired the people who produced numbers he didn’t like, so I don’t know whether to believe him or not. He lies about everything.”

This was a theme the congressional staffers I spent time with Wednesday also pounded home. “It’s hard to believe him, and I voted for him,” a late-30s mid-level staffer explained. “We’re seriously f****d.”

Bernie Sanders echoed that sentiment as he left the floor of the Senate on Thursday after casting his vote against funding DHS. When I asked the Vermont Independent what could be done to return to some semblance of normalcy, he seemed testy, waved his hands and said, “We’re doing the best we can.”

Members of the United Auto Workers, in town this week from Detroit, shared their frustration with Trump as well and were unmoved by the latest jobs report. “He says he’s America First, but we’re not feeling it,” a UAW officer I ran into explained.

On Thursday, Trump claimed union workers loved him. He said the same thing to coal workers the previous day. “Those other presidents didn’t take good care of you,” Trump said. But clearly, many are no longer buying what he is selling.

As I visited congressional offices this week, meeting with sources and watching members of Congress interact with their constituents, it felt perfunctory — and, in some cases, sad. Trump’s fans have placed posters proclaiming his greatness on the walls outside their offices. It looked like high school.

The most enjoyable people I’ve interacted with since I’ve been back aren’t my colleagues, who — if they aren’t burned out — have become mindless automatons and propagandists who can’t think for themselves. The National Guard members, however, are different. Many of those I met are from Florida and are serving to pay for college. Bright and eager to talk, they told me that most people have been nice to them. “But there’s nothing much to do here,” one guardsman said. “We’re only for show.” 

That show is growing duller, and more lethargic and repetitive, by the day, like watching reruns of a canceled sitcom.

I’ve seen a lot of change in the last year. It isn’t as good as Trump says. People are struggling to make ends meet and gas still isn’t $1.99 a gallon as he continues to claim. But the biggest takeaway after leaving the District for several months and now returning is that it has become painfully apparent that this is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. That’s the dream, but the harsh reality is that we live in an authoritarian regime ruled by a man who cares only for himself, and the capital is now looking more like those of many authoritarian countries I’ve visited in my life. And Donald Trump did it all in just one short year.

 

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to identify the party affiliation of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

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