2025-06-07
48 分钟The Economist.
We spend a lot of time reporting on what happens in Washington.
This week, we're reporting what's happening to it.
In Donald Trump's second term,
America's capital is being reshaped, structurally, symbolically and politically.
The city prides itself on its ability to flex with each new administration.
But as agencies are downsized or dismantled, and public institutions come under pressure.
The people who serve them, civil servants,
professionals young and old, are being pushed out.
Washington has long been a political target.
This time, though, the attacks aren't just rhetorical,
they're material, and coming from many directions.
Who knows, they could even be permanent.
I'm Rosie Bloor and today on the weekend intelligence my colleague Ed McBride revisits Washington DC,
the city where he grew up.
Walking the streets of the place he once called home he speaks to the people who are living through this transformation and he asks what happens when the seat of American power starts to lose its shape.
So we're at the house that I lived in when I was little,
from when I was four to when I was eight.
And I didn't recognize it when we drove past because it's been so massively renovated.
It's doubled in size.