As Congress returns to Democrats, one likely casualty emerges: Trump's District of Columbia projects

Democratic control of Congress is expected to complicate President Donald Trump's efforts to reshape the look of Washington, D.C., after midterm results that handed his party a sharp rebuke. For his first two years back in office, the administration faced little organized resistance in Congress to those efforts, since Democrats lacked the power to do more than voice objections, according to ABC News.

Trump's own schedule shows how central the work is to him. His final message before the election, on Monday, dealt with the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. On Wednesday, November 4, 2026, he made his first appearance since the vote, touring the White House ballroom under construction and discussing its columns, steel beams and Corinthian styling, rather than addressing the election outcome or his policies.

The list of projects is long. It includes a new name and renovation plans for the Kennedy Center, changes to a public golf course, and a planned arch that would stand 100 feet above the Statue of Liberty's figure alone. Representative Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, has spent the past year scrutinizing these undertakings, which positions Democrats to press harder on oversight.

Summarized by PolitiKool from ABC News’s reporting. Read the full story at ABC News →