D.C. has been under tighter federal control before. Here’s what it looked like

by The editor•12 August 2025•NPR

Marchers rally for home rule in front of the White House in April 1965. At that point, D.C. had been run by presidentially appointed commissioners for nearly a century.

Trump’s expansion of federal authority over Washington, D.C., is in many ways unprecedented, but calls to mind other times the city has been under tighter federal control.

(Image credit: National Archives)