Touring Trump's Washington: How the president is putting his imprint on the nation's capital

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

But visitors to the nation’s capital will find that it 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 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.

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.

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 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.

It's 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.’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.

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'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 last February, 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?

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 U.S. 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 Justice Department building, a physical display of the Republican president’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.

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.

Trump called the area “filthy” and had workers paint it in a color he has dubbed “American flag blue.” 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.

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. The National Park Service said the liner was intentionally cut with a sharp razor or knife.

A walk over the Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River leads directly to the proposed future site of Trump's 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.

In a city meticulously planned and rich with the symbolism that defines the nation, new construction can unsettle the carefully crafted balance.

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.

Visible from the 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 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’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 that has been largely unprecedented for a sitting, living president.

No tour would be complete without 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — the White House. There, gazers can look at the construction site formerly known as the East Wing. It's now the president's ballroom-in-waiting as the courts and Congress battle over whether to build it.

The White House has 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 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' Association dinner in April.

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.

Directly north, across Pennsylvania Avenue, is the area of town formerly known as Black Lives Matter Plaza. During Trump's 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.

BLM Plaza became a magnet point for years of political activism. Hundreds of protests started, ended or rallied there.

The plaza came down in March 2025 at Bowser’s direction, spurred by threats from Congress to hold the city’s funding. The decision served as an acknowledgment of a major shift in tone under Trump.

That's the tour, folks. Please enjoy your stay.

FILE - Demonstrators, including Nadine Siler, of Waldorf, Md., dressed in a pink frog costume, hold up signs at a designated protest point in front of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a day after a Trump-appointed board voted to add President Donald Trump's name to the Kennedy Center, Dec. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, file)

FILE - Members of the National Guard walking in the lobby of Union Station in Washington, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

FILE - This photo combination shows the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, June 9, 2023, and a banner featuring an image of President Donald Trump hanging on the building, May 27, 2026. in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Matt Rourke, file)

This photo provided by the Library of Congress shows a view of the White House seen from the Washington Monument sometime between 1913 and 1918. (Library of Congress via AP)

This image provided by the Library of Congress shows people arriving at Union Station before heading to the Lincoln Memorial to take part in the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963 (Marion S. Trikosko/Library of Congress via AP)

FILE - Cuddles, a white duck living at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, plays with a lamb named Rosemary and actor Shane Nickerson, 8, on the center's grounds, Oct. 5, 1972. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, file)

This combination of images shows Black Lives Matter plaza on 16th Street, NW, near the White House on March 10, 2025, top, as work was beginning to remove signage and markings, and on April 1, 2025, after the work was completed. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Louisiana Republicans will nominate a candidate for U.S. Senate in a primary runoff Saturday, six weeks after denying Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy a shot at a third term.

Although President Donald Trump already achieved one of his top political goals with Cassidy’s defeat, Saturday’s runoff could further demonstrate his ongoing influence in Republican primaries as he tries to populate the halls of Congress with loyalists for his final two years in office. The seat is not a top target among Democrats looking to win back control of the chamber in November.

Republican U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming are the finalists for Cassidy’s now-open U.S. Senate seat. Trump encouraged Letlow to challenge Cassidy in the primary and endorsed her before she entered the race in January. Letlow took office in 2021 in a special election to replace her husband, Luke Letlow, who died from COVID-19 in 2020 before taking office. Fleming served in Congress for eight years leading up to Trump’s first term. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 but failed to make the runoff. Republican John Kennedy won the seat.

In the May 16 primary, Letlow placed first with about 45% of the vote, short of the majority required to avoid Saturday’s runoff. Fleming placed second with 28% of the vote, just ahead of Cassidy with about 25%.

Letlow led in small, mostly rural parishes across the state, with outright majorities in parishes in northeastern Louisiana and along the Mississippi border. Fleming mostly placed a distant second across the state. He performed best in northwestern Louisiana, with leads in nine rural parishes, but not in Caddo, home to Shreveport, where he finished a close second behind Letlow.

Cassidy was the top vote-getter in the state’s three most populous parishes, including Orleans Parish where he led Letlow by almost a three-to-one margin. But he barely outperformed Letlow in East Baton Rouge and Jefferson parishes.

The president’s endorsees have generally had a strong winning record at the ballot box, but his recent picks for governor of Iowa and Georgia lost their primaries. Trump endorsed South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette for governor ahead of the primary, but after she was forced to a runoff in a close vote, he announced he was backing both her and her opponent, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who won the nomination on Tuesday.

Trump has reissued his endorsement of Letlow several times since January, including most recently in mid-June. He has not also endorsed Fleming.

Louisiana Democrats will also finalize their U.S. Senate nominee, with farmer Jamie Davis and Navy veteran Gary Crockett competing in the runoff.

Other primary runoffs on the ballot include Republican contests for Public Service Commission and state board of education, where incumbent board member and former Republican U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao faces a challenge from educator and business owner Ellie Schroder.

Primaries for U.S. House were were postponed to November after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current congressional map, which includes a majority Black district that favors Democrats. Although the state had previously adopted a new primary system for congressional races, the postponed U.S. House races will revert to using an “open” or “ jungle ” primary system where candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 8 p.m. CT, which is 9 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in primary runoffs for U.S. Senate, state Public Service Commission and state school board.

Registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary runoffs. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in a Republican runoff or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters who voted in a party’s primary on May 16 may only vote in that same party’s runoff. Independent or unaffiliated voters who did not vote in a partisan primary on May 16 may vote in either party’s runoff.

As of June 1, there were about 3 million registered voters in Louisiana. Registered Democrats and Republicans numbered about 1.1 million each, with registered Democrats at a slight advantage. About 819,000 voters were not registered with any party. The remainder were registered with other parties.

About 832,000 Louisianans participated in the May 16 primary, or about 28% of registered voters. This includes about 347,000 registered Democrats and about 336,000 registered Republicans.

In 2022 when the state still used “open” or “jungle” primary rules for certain contests, turnout fell from 1.4 million in the November primary to about 439,000 in the December runoff, or about 47% of registered voters to about 14%.

About 33% of Democratic primary votes and about 31% of Republican primary votes in the May 16 primaries were cast early in-person or by mail.

As of Thursday, about 82,000 ballots from Republicans and about 61,000 ballots from Democrats had already been cast in Saturday’s runoffs.

Results from early and absentee voting are usually released by each parish in the first vote update.

In the May 16 primary, the AP first reported results at 9:02 p.m. ET, or two minutes after polls closed. By 10:46 p.m. ET, more than 90% of the total vote had been counted. The last vote update of the night was at 1:30 a.m. ET with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

There are no automatic recounts in Louisiana, but a candidate may request and pay for a recount of absentee and early votes. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Saturday, there will be 129 days until the Nov. 3 general election and the Louisiana congressional primaries, and 168 days until the Louisiana congressional general election on Dec. 12.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

FILE - U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., right, speaks with supporters during an election night watch party, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

FILE - John Fleming, a U.S. Senate candidate, current Louisiana treasurer and former Republican House representative of Louisiana, greets supporters at a Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon in Baton Rouge, La., May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)