In some neighbourhoods of heavily Democratic Washington, Halloween displays with a decidedly political tone have long been a tradition.
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Nine months into Republican US President Donald Trump’s second term, some residents are staging anti-Trump yard displays prompted in part by his administration’s budget cuts, job lay-offs and norm-breaking policies.
This Halloween also coincides with one of the longest government shutdowns in US history.
In a front yard close to the US Capitol, Donna Breslin, 79, has installed an entire graveyard with 16 headstones to mark policy moves Trump has made since he took office in January that she says are killing off American democracy.
There are headstones – bought on Amazon and hand-painted by Breslin – for “USAID” and “research for health and science”, among others.
The headstones are references to Trump administration cuts to the US Agency for International Development and health research, both part of his broader effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.