There are far more career federal employees than political appointees. So I don’t buy the idea there is a huge amount of noticeable turnover with administrations. A lot of young people come to work in DC as interns, for entry level jobs, etc., before moving on to other things. So there is a lot of churn in the 20s age group. There is less churn in the over 30s crowd but some people do move to the burbs when they have kids.

That said, I know lots of folks who’ve been here for a long time and have no plans to leave. So I think this is sort of a trope, though I would concede DC has more churn than a place like Charlotte, for example.

Obama made DC and public service seem cool to many and definitely gave the city a boost up in coolness. He and the First Lady were often out to eat at new restaurants, they held events with relevant contemporary artists etc.

The Trump presidency had a minimal to neutral effect. Many political appointee jobs went unfilled, there wasn't a surge of new young aspiring staffers etc. He didn't go out much at all etc.

Been here since 2012. The most I noticed during the Trump administration was that you might hear derisive comments about a couple of places being frequented by White House staff (Blackfinn is one I remember in particular) and you might swipe left on Tinder if someone's job was listed as "White House".

Dem presidents do seem to make more attempts to be part of the city itself, so there's more buzz around like "oh this is that place Biden ordered from". Trump would just eat at his hotel.

Going to GW, the vibe around the 2012 election/2013 inauguration was incredible. I wasn't there in 2016, but obviously things were not the same for Trump.

Similarly after Election Day 2016 the city collectively seemed like it was stuck in a deep depression. People were just sad everywhere you went for like weeks. When the 2020 election was announced for Biden it was basically a parade in the streets of DC.

Yes, some people move in and out with each new congress or administration. But there are like 750,000 people who live in DC proper and 5.5M in the metro area. I think less than 10,000 actually work on the Hill, FWIW. I've been in DC for nearly 18 years and most of my friends have been here longer than me. Yes, there are people who come from all over to get a DC polish on their resume and then head back home to get married and have babies. But the upside of that is some of the smartest and most earnest people I've ever met flock to DC to change the world (through non-profits and institutions and even politics) and they keep the city interesting!

Not really. The only thing that changed was more of his fans/maga republicans were excited to come to DC from their flyover states.

Loves giving them complete wrong directions when I saw them downtown

Been here since 93. The town’s culture does change with administrations.

The Clinton years were a party. DC had a warehouse club scene that has since disappeared. The city itself lacked amenities (e.g., if you needed home products you traveled to the suburbs to do shopping). Crime was high. Depending on your comfort level, if you were on Capitol Hill you didn’t explore much further than third street SE. Not sure how any of that might have been the result of the admin, though.

The Bush Jr years were… something. After the traumatic anxiety inducing 9/11 (and that’s an understatement) the tone turned “top down my way or the highway.” The city’s transformation continued apace. You might think people would find a way to blow off steam, but the former warehouse clubs disappeared to make room for Nationals Park, shuttering a big portion of nightlife and scattering queer culture across the city.

The Obama years felt promising and idealistic, attracted a youth culture and restaurant scene that had been missing. Also attracted Silicon Valley. The “NY-ification” of DC.

The Trump years reminded residents this town is the political center of the country. And a real battleground in a moment’s notice. A weird anxiety set in not for obvious reasons. More like due to the neglect that came with first contact with an admin that seemed uninterested in stepping into the role. A notable departure from prior admins: Whenever the presidential motorcade appeared in traffic it wasn’t managed like previous admins. No police clearing the way and managing pedestrian traffic. It just appeared, blasting horns and trying to blow through the streets. Not hyperbole: random uncivil crappiness was everywhere on the street. From both sides of the spectrum.

Currently: a weird idealistic culture has set in. Especially in the workplace. Best described as “everyone wants to save the world, nobody wants to do the dishes.” Net result: seems like everything is viewed through the lens of what’s in it for me and less gets done.

I think the only changing demographic that's consistent is the gentrification. I'll be honest. The only time I really hear that D.C is a transient city or the "you never really meet anyone from d.c" narrative is from certain demographics and that usually tells me a lot about them and their social circles.

As others have said with Trump, including other conservative presidents in the past, their red supporters usually come through for a few events and then return.

The escalation between the tea party and the maga movements were interesting though.

Previous administrations had brought waves of bright eyed young people in. Clinton did. Bush did. Obama really did. Trump just didn’t. And Biden brought a small wave, but not a change level one (probably a combination of COVID and Joe) trump just didn’t fill a couple thousand political appointed jobs.

During the Trump years, dating was I think what changed the most . For the first time, people were putting in their profiles that had no interest in MAGA .

Other than that, I didn't notice anything. We had a very bad image overseas, and every week, there was a new horror story

In my experience the main difference between DC and the other major knowledge sector metro areas is that people here are much slower to really adopt DC as where they are “from”—they don’t internalize being from here, proclaim being from here, in the same way that a 24 year old U of Tennessee grad is “from” New York within 18 months of moving to the city.

Was here for a year during the first term of the Shrub administration, and moved back towards the end of it. DC has always been a bit cyclical depending on who inhabited the White House. One restauranteur who’s had multiple places in DC told me that business was better during the Obama and Clinton administrations than when any Republican was in office.

Trump’s malignant brand of conservatism did change DC. In prior administrations, people could occasionally work in a bipartisan fashion. These America First MAGAts are an entirely different breed, and I shudder to think what will happen if we get Meatball Ron or any of his ilk in the White House.

I remember that article (sounds more like a Politico one than WaPo, TBH). It was about the social life of official Washington (like ambassadors, Cabinet- and undersecretary-level appointees, Congress critters and their chiefs of staff, etc), not your average person working in politics. It said that the Trump administration was pretty insular, and they weren't really welcome at things like the Kennedy Center Honors, WH Correspondents' Dinner, etc. They pretty much hung out at the Trump Hotel and Cafe Milano, whereas the Obama administration was out and about, hosting parties, attending events, trying new restaurants, etc.

There was a better article a while back that distinguished between Washington, the company town revolving around the Capitol, White House, and political DC, and the District of Columbia, the vibrant city of 700,000 who have little or nothing to do with the political company town. Washington is incredibly transient. The District less so. There’s still turnover in the District, especially among the 20-something crowd that moves here for internships and nonprofits, but the District is otherwise pretty stable.

Others have answered well but I will add that Democratic presidents actually go out in DC. They eat at restaurants, go to plays, games, do press events at DC schools, etc, so there is a slight chance you’ll cross paths with them. I met Joe and Jill at a vaccination drive, for example.

I think the fascist one only went out to eat once in four years and it was to his own dumbass hotel.

Been here since 2006.

Biggest change during the Trump years was the sheer number of protests and protesters coming from around the country. It was a truly special (if exhausting) time for the democratic process.

The biggest change to the city’s overall culture was between Bush & Obama. A new energy was injected into the city.

As a 20+ year resident and having seen administrations come and go, a single term doesn't move the needle on anything.

There's a lot more to DC than the Hill and 1600 Penn, and I've had very little interest or interaction with either. Perhaps more the latter than the former in any case.

Are you talking about this Politico article? https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/06/22/trump-millennial-supporters-washington-dc-218833/

Nah. There are two DCs - political/political-adjacent DC and normal DC. The latter is filled with people who may work nominally government jobs, but are more (primarily) technical specialists than anything else. I will concede that the former is rapidly overtaking the latter as people are getting more and more politically involved. But it really just comes down to what your milieu is. The political/transient milieu might be changing, but I wouldn't really know.

On a broader note, I would say this city underwent a revolution during the Obama years. People began to dress better, look better (there was an article in The Economist around 10 years ago about how DC went from having nearly the fewest gyms in the country per capita to having the most or almost the most in a matter of years). If DC ever was Hollywood for the Ugly, it CERTAINLY isn't that anymore. People began to care more about sitting in good restaurants and not just drinking Folger's coffee. Bike lanes really took off at that time. I won't speculate why these people and that specific moment demanded these changes, I'm just stating that's when and who changed the city. It has been relatively stable/consistent since.

I've lived in DC for 37 years and have been a fed through Obama, Trump, and now Biden. I noticed basically zero difference in the "culture of DC" between administrations.

That being said, there are definitely city-wide mood swings. The weeks and months after the elections of Obama and Trump were definitely palpable in their jubilation and sorrow. The months after January 6th were noticeable in their shock and disgust. I don't think any of those things changed the overall culture of DC though.

Each new administration only gets about 4,000 appointees, only 1,600 of which require Senate confirmation. (i.e. are anyone actually important.) Many, probably most of them will choose to live in the rich MD/VA suburbs. There just aren't enough people to make a big difference.

Also, you're probably asking the wrong people. Except for maybe the upper crust of Georgetown and Kalorama who actually do hobnob with appointees at their clubs, us regular joes aren't connected with that world. You know where the biggest concentration of DC natives is? Wards 7 and 8. Nobody over here is getting invited to parties with Janet Yellen or Antony Blinken.

There are more natives than you think. I've lived in DC my whole life.

if you only hang out with white college educated 20 somethings who work in politics (or politics adjacent) then all the stereotypes about DC transience are generally true

After Obama was elected in '08, the city was electric. As one poster mentioned, it was as if a NY-ification of DC began happening almost immediately. The period between the election and inauguration was one big party (bars open all night, celebs in town, a sense of hope and joy among people that I've never seen before). Around this time, DC also became a more attractive destination as a place to live and work. The city itself began to change with an enhanced culinary scene, new neighborhoods on the upswing, more local businesses opening up, etc.

Whether or not Obama's policies lived up to the hype is one's personal preference, and the changes/gentrification in the city had its pros and cons, but this was a very transformative time for DC. Neighborhoods changed drastically (H Street, Shaw, Petworth, Navy Yard, etc.).

These days, the changes are still noticeable, but the atmosphere is different. Parts of DC that were recently pretty great are now interchangeable with Clarendon and other cookie-cutter suburbs. I've also noticed the sense of community in some neighborhoods has vanished a bit. In the H Street area about 10-15 years ago, everyone knew each other, looked out for on another, and it seemed much smaller and community-orientated. Nowadays, that vibe is gone. It's thousands of folks packed into apartment buildings who will never meet their neighbors and who walk briskly down the street with earbuds from one destination to the next. Not saying there is anything wrong with this, it's just different. Couple that with soaring housing costs, and a whole chunk of the population that used to live here is gone.

That went a little off track, but as a transient city--some people stay, some people go. I'm at an age where folks are now in the suburbs, moved elsewhere in the country, or are scattered in different parts of the city.

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I've been here from 20s through 40s. I don't judge people who move on, just stating a lot of it happens around changes in family. And DC is very expensive to live in.

DC isn't nearly as transient as the reputation. Students, yes, of course they come and go, but most neighborhoods are very stable. Actually N. Virginia/Arlington is where you see lots of turnover related to administration rollover, not so much DC proper.

lived there 80 years. lots of new people coming c in, no one leaves except the children of residents. of my high school class, i am the only one who stayed here.

NGOs and Non Profit groups wax and wane depending on the administration.

I’ve been here since 1992. I have very little interaction with political people except an appreciation for the young people it brings to town which has been pretty consistent over 30 years.

The only thing I noticed is there is even less parking spots from all the patio/outdoor stuff, but less people walking around, and property crime rates are through the roof. DC has been liberal and still is liberal. The same vanities are there. Its probably going to start changing back when fed employees come back.