Everything that happened in D.C. in 2025
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
If you live in Washington, 2025 lasted precisely ... a million years.
The big picture: It was a whopper of an annum packed with non-stop headlines affecting local living.
- In fact, so much happened that we here at Axios D.C. forgot about some of it β and we were the ones covering everything!
State of play: So here's a refresher on what went down in D.C.'s 2025.
- Bonus points if you can sing the whole thing out loud to the chorus of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It."
πΊπΈ Inauguration
- D.C. turns into the Trump Show, with cyber trucks, a Capital One rally and protests galore.
π President Trump's executive orders begin
- POTUS strips civil servants of employment protections, calls feds back in IRL and says federal buildings must follow traditional design styles.
π° Washington sees a real estate "Trump bump"
- Luxury home sales surge, complete with bougie house managers and private chefs.
π D.C. mourns after the DCA plane crash

β DOGE targets the District
- Elon Musk and crew come to town (and sleep in their offices), feds are laid off, entire agencies are shuttered and some Washingtonians try to avoid dating DOGE-ers.
π Trump takes over KenCen
- Now, the Trump-Kennedy center.
π¨ Washington's economy gets hammered
- Recession talk abounds, laid-off government workers vie for white-collar jobs and former feds document their unemployment online.

π² Congress withholds $1 billion from D.C.'s budget
π Washington mourns the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers
π World Pride sees attendance impacted by Trump rhetoric

πͺ Trump's military parade rolls through town β but so do protests
π½οΈ D.C. guts I-82
π΅βπ« We all lose our mind over Labubus
π¨ Trump kicks off D.C. federal crackdown
- The National Guard and federal agents go on patrol, homeless encampments are cleared and ICE arrests take over social media feeds.
- Local resistance pushes back β including "Sandwich Guy" β and Trump and Mayor Muriel Bowser officially become "frenemies."
- The economy, housing market, restaurant world and tourism industry feel the effects.
π Commanders' D.C. stadium gets approved
π΄ Woodmont Grill closes β and Butterworth's becomes the new MAGA playground
- Plus: Trump eats out in D.C. for the first time.
π D.C. reaches peak Trump-ification
- The Rose Garden gets paved over, the East Wing comes down, the Oval Office gets gilded, Trump's headshot pops up on federal buildings and everyone has Mar-a-Lago face.

ποΈ Washington experiences its longest-ever shutdown
- Nonprofits get hit, local chefs feed the hungry, and furloughed feds start recording shutdown diaries and taking on side hustles.
π« Bowser announces she won't run for a fourth term
π D.C. does away with streateries β and then changes course
βοΈ Trump floats Dulles takeover
What we're watching: How the ripple effects of this very long list continue to play out in 2026.
Go deeper: See D.C.'s 2025 in photos


