Category Archives: Washington, DC

Trump’s interior secretary dismisses calls to identify donors for ‘nonpartisan’ concert series

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Doug Burgum complains some musicians ‘segmented their audiences’ after artists back out of 250th anniversary event

The Trump administration’s interior secretary, Doug Burgum, complained on Sunday that some musicians “seem to have segmented their audiences” after artists bailed on participating in a concert series planned for the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence.

In the interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Burgum also dismissed calls to publicly identified who had made donations for the concert series – and maintained it was a “nonpartisan” event despite Donald Trump referring to it as a rally.

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Gunman who opened fire near White House was known to Secret Service

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Suspect who died after exchanging fire with agents had tried to enter the complex last summer, records show

A gunman who opened fire outside the White House on Saturday before he was shot by federal agents was already known to the US Secret Service, court records show.

The man, 21, was taken to a nearby hospital, before he was later pronounced dead. He had previously tried to enter the complex, according to an affidavit filed in DC superior court in 2025, following an arrest nearby.

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Workers racing to turn reflecting pool blue for Trump may be at risk, union warns

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Union representative concerned about safety as workers rush to finish repainting DC pool before 250th celebrations

Workers renovating one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic sites in a project ordered by Donald Trump may be risking their safety as they race to finish on time for the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations, a union monitoring the site has warned.

Trade union scrutiny has focused on the reflecting pool on the US capital’s National Mall – scene of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream speech” – after it was drained of water and fenced off from the public to allow contractors the chance to upgrade it by 4 July.

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How TMZ is finding its footing on the political scene, even after some misfires

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The salacious gossip website is hounding politicians and tracking vacationing members of Congress

TMZ has only been in Washington DC for a matter of weeks, but the salacious gossip website is already having an impact: hounding politicians, tracking vacationing members of Congress and reporting on a senator taking a trip to Disney World.

It’s been quite the start as the website and TV channel attempts to break into the political scene, with its first focus on members of Congress taking a two-week recess – typically meaning the politicians return to their home districts and states to meet constituents – during a record partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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No-bid contract to turn DC’s reflecting pool blue goes to firm with ties to Trump

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A company Trump has used for work at his Virginia golf course was awarded $6.9m to paint the iconic attraction

Donald Trump’s latest beautification plan for Washington DC – the restoration of the 2,000ft-long reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial – has met been with claims that a $6.9m contract to carry out the project was hastily handed out to a company that renovated a swimming pool at the president’s Virginia golf course.

The New York Times reported that the no-bid contract for the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was given to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, based in New Canton, Virginia, on 3 April – despite company records’ showing it has not previously been awarded a federal contract.

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Man charged in DC shooting was walking near JD Vance’s motorcade, agent says

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Michael Marx was shot by authorities multiple times and then taken to a hospital after bystander was wounded

A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.

Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said: “‘F—k the White House’ and ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me’”, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.

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King Charles arrives in Washington for state visit fraught with tension

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The British monarch and Queen Camilla come to a city still reeling from shooting at dinner attended by Trump

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at the White House on Monday for a state visit in Washington, a city still rattled by a weekend shooting and a transatlantic alliance showing fresh signs of strain.

British flags could be seen lining lamp-posts outside the White House, where Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, were set to host the royals for a private tea and a tour of the newly expanded White House beehive on the south lawn.

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Donald Trump evacuated from White House correspondents dinner after loud bangs heard – live

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President Donald Trump and other top leaders evacuated from the annual dinner after an unspecified threat

David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, spoke briefly to Frank Luntz, a prominent political consultant and pollster.

“I watched the security people use the ultimate in athleticism to get over tables, get over chairs, to get to the people that they were guarding,” Luntz said.

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Smithsonian museum director to move to Guggenheim: ‘a moment of change’

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Melissa Chiu, 54, director of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, led the institution for 12 years

A museum director at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has announced that she is leaving to take over at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Melissa Chiu has been director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall for 12 years. In an interview on Thursday, she insisted that her departure is not related to Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere with the Smithsonian.

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Down the rabbit hole: Trump offers dark Iran warnings after Easter bunny act

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President’s press conference after White House Easter egg roll did little to dispel fears he has lost touch with reality

Donald Trump began his day standing with a person in a giant bunny costume and boasting about the Iran war to an audience of children.

The annual Easter egg roll on the White House South Lawn conjured a fitting Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland image for a US president who has disappeared down what many would call a rabbit hole.

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Halting $400m White House ballroom project is national security risk, Trump officials say

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US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make ‘heavily fortified’ facility

Donald Trump’s administration is arguing that a judge’s order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling.

In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judge’s order to suspend construction of the new facility is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff”.

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US judge orders Trump to halt $400m White House ballroom project

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US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft project

A US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump’s $400m White House ballroom.

The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project.

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‘Break your silence’: Jane Fonda leads rally against Trump crackdown on arts and media

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Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats

The actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in urging US citizens to “break your silence” and “stand tall against authoritarianism”.

At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment on Friday, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump.

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US park police officer wounded in ‘ambush’ shooting in Washington DC

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Park police chief says officer was ‘ambushed’ by two gunmen who fired as officer drove in unmarked vehicle

A US park police officer was seriously wounded on Monday evening in a shooting in Washington DC in what the park police chief called an ambush.

The park police chief, Scott Brecht, said in a press briefing that the unidentified officer was “ambushed” by two gunmen who fired at the officer as he drove by in an unmarked vehicle. The officer was working on a park police investigation when he was shot. The chief declined to give specifics of the investigation.

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Protesters rally across US after strikes on Iran that killed Khamenei

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Crowds gather in DC, New York and beyond to denounce Trump’s Iran strikes as an illegal act of war

As news circulated that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, anti-war protesters gathered across the United States, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square to voice opposition to US military involvement in the region.

“It wasn’t sanctioned by Congress, so what Trump is doing is on his own terms, it’s making him a fascist and it’s making the country into a fascist state,” said Sue Johnson, a protester.

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Trump invites families of national guard members who were shot to White House

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President plans to honor Sarah Beckstrom, who was fatally shot, as well as Andrew Wolfe, who is in critical condition

Donald Trump said on Sunday that he invited the family of a national guard member fatally shot last week to the White House, adding that he spoke to her parents and they were “devastated”.

US army specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in a shooting on Wednesday in Washington DC. Her fellow service member, US air force staff Sgt Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition. Vigils across West Virginia have taken place in their memory.

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Kristi Noem claims suspect in national guard shooting was ‘radicalized’ in US

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Homeland security secretary also blamed ‘activist’ judges for defying court order to halt deportation flights

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed on Sunday that the suspect in the national guard shooting in Washington DC was “radicalized” in the US and blamed the Biden administration, though the suspect’s asylum was approved under Donald Trump.

The shooting suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum under the Trump administration in April 2025. He worked with CIA backed units in Afghanistan, coming to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program.

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DC to put national guard on joint patrols with local police after shootings

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Move marks shift in how the guard are used in the US capital, days after two members were shot

National guard troops are to be paired with local law enforcement on patrols in Washington DC, according to a report in the Washington Post on Friday, 48 hours after two guard members were shot.

“Officers will conduct high-visibility patrols with the national guard and provide assistance as needed,” according to an email to the district’s leadership obtained by the Post.

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Trump says he will ‘permanently pause’ migration from ‘third world countries’ after national guard shooting

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In a social media post sent late on Thanksgiving, US president said he would ‘end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens’ following Washington DC shooting

Donald Trump has said he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries,” a day after two national guard members were shot in Washington DC in an attack that has become a political flashpoint in the president’s ongoing crackdown on immigration.

In a social media post beginning with “a very happy Thanksgiving,” sent after 11pm on Thursday, the US president said his administration would “end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens” and remove “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States”.

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Trump officials announce sweeping immigration reviews after national guard shooting

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Donald Trump signaled after attack that refugee and asylum cases would be scrutinized

Trump administration officials say they are undertaking a broad re-examination of asylum cases and green cards issued to citizens of certain countries, after the shooting of two national guard members near the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named the suspect in the shooting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the US under a policy set up under Joe Biden after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and continued under Donald Trump.

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