Trump induces socio-economic turmoil in Washington
The US capital, Washington, DC, is in extreme socio-economic turmoil as a result of President Donald Trump's sweeping changes.
The nation's seventh-largest metropolitan area is already in a recession, according to some analysts.
20% of the entire Federal workforce is located in the area, but layoffs of federal workers are approaching 300,000 people in just three months, and it's estimated that there's one private contractor for every federal worker.
The local housing market is plummeting compared with one year ago. There are 27% more houses for sale in the DC metro area, and their asking price has dropped by almost 10%.
DC is nobody's political playground. We are 700,000 people strong, and we intend to fight back at every iteration [sic].
What this current administration is seeking to do is inundate us with an executive order there, this is happening there, Doge is happening there, but ... what we're doing here; this is about people power.
Frankie Seabron, Activist
Part of Trump's election campaign included a federal takeover of the District of Columbia, which doesn't have representation in Congress - it didn't even have a mayor until 1973 - and, Congress has control over DC's budget and proposed laws.
Car license plates angrily bear the demand to "End Taxation Without Representation".
The people who have control to actually vote for what DC need, we're not their constituents.
So when we got a pothole in DC, do you think that the representative of, say, New York or the representative of Texas gonna [sic] care about a pothole in Washington?
Do you think the representative of, say, Pennsylvania is going to care that our school don't have a teacher in it?
They got [sic] their own city and their own budget to worry about.
Nene Taylor, Co-Founder, Free DC
Almost 45% of the city is African American, and abandoning black communities by the government is an entrenched fact in the United States.
Slashing government jobs strikes at the heart of the area's African American middle class.
Yes, I think that has a lot to do with it. Federal employment has historically been one of the biggest ladders to the middle class for black people.
I mean, that's how I got there. That's how my family is able to support themselves.
And it is an attack on that; the ability of huge groups of people to be able to live fairly and equally and safely.
Paul Osadebe, Federal Unionist Network
Trump and the Washington DC elite have had an infamously antagonistic relationship since 2016 and after years of so-called lawfare, it appears that the Whitehouse and the Republican Party have the city in a socio-economic and cultural chokehold, which may reshape the entire region.
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