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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2026\/10\/05\/us\/politics\/trump-free-speech-fence-lafayette-park.html?ae=oa&emc=edit_nn_20261007&nl=the-morning&segment_id=227657",
    "parsed_content": "Lafayette SquareWhite House1963 Civil rights memorial2018 Immigration policy protestProposed permanent fence Inside Trump\u2019s Plan to Fence Off a Historic Protest Site The president\u2019s proposal to enclose a park in Washington could alter how the space has been used for generations. This is Lafayette Square, where you can be within earshot and view of the president. A 3-D model shows the north entrance of the White House as seen from Lafayette Square. Crowds have gathered here to protest, celebrate and keep vigil. The view pulls back and tilts downward to show the White House and the park from an angle. A photograph taken in 1963 is overlaid on the 3-D scene and shows a large crowd gathered in the park for a civil rights protest. For more than a century, the park has been the stage for free speech demonstrations. The view pans to the right and a photograph taken in 2018 is overlaid on the 3-D scene. It shows large crowds at a rally in the park protesting President Trump\u2019s immigration policy. Now, the Trump administration plans to add a permanent fence around the park, with gates that officials could close at their discretion. The view pulls back to show Lafayette Square from overhead. The footprint of the proposed fence is shown on the model. The fencing wraps around the park perimeter and runs across the two streets on either side of the park. By Yuliya Parshina-Kottas,\u00a0Elena Shao,\u00a0Raj Saha,\u00a0Doug Mills and Luke Broadwater Oct. 5, 2026 Share full articleIf the fence proposal is implemented, it could limit the public\u2019s access to an open space that has allowed people to practice free speech at the doorstep of the country\u2019s highest seat of power.The administration has said that a permanent fence around Lafayette Square would enhance security during \u201cheightened conditions,\u201d and that the park would remain a public space. It has cited clashes between Black Lives Matter protesters and the police in 2020, vandalism of park statues in 2024 during protests against the war in Gaza and a shooting near the White House this year as examples of security concerns.Mr. Trump has invoked national security to justify an array of proposals to remake Washington, including the building of a 250-foot triumphal arch and the demolition of the East Wing to make space for a ballroom.Opponents of the plan say that a fence would deter the free speech activities that have long defined the seven-acre park and make it easier for the administration to curb protests at will. It is the latest example of President Trump\u2019s use of executive measures and legal maneuvers to clamp down on dissent, they say.\u201cThis is a slippery slope, and as soon as this is a tool you have, it\u2019s a tool that\u2019s going to be used,\u201d Evan Cash, a D.C. council staff member, said of the fence at a National Capital Planning Commission meeting in September where the administration presented its proposal.The planning commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, both federal panels filled with Mr. Trump\u2019s appointees, have signaled they are likely to vote to give the project final approval.The New York Times created a 3-D model of the area to show how the proposal could shape access to the park, based on drawings submitted to the panels. The design elements have not been finalized. Lafayette SquareWhite HouseExisting permanent fenceExisting security checkpointsProposed permanent fenceArea that could be inaccessibleGatesGates to side streetGated entrances The White House is already protected by a 13-foot steel fence and two checkpoints at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue. A diagrammatic 3-D model shows the White House, the park and surrounding streets and buildings from an overhead view. An existing permanent fence wraps around the perimeter of the White House. Two existing security checkpoints sit on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that runs in between the White House and the park. The proposed fence would be eight to nine feet tall and wrap around the perimeter of the park. The outline of the proposed permanent fence is shown on the diagram. The area inside the park and three surrounding streets, including Pennsylvania Avenue, are marked in red. This area could be inaccessible if all the gates were closed. Gates would be placed throughout the fence and on the streets to the east and west of the park. The view pans closer to one corner of the park. Five gated entrances to the park are shown. A larger gate, which opens to the street bordering the park, is also shown. The largest gated entrances would be at the north and south ends. The view pans to the right, showing where there are larger gated entrances at the north and south sides of the park. But if all the gates were closed, this small area at the edge of the park would be the only space accessible to the public. The view zooms in and shows the north entrance from the ground level. The fencing here curves inward to allow for a small gathering area. Even if the gates were open, simply having a fence around the park might deter public gatherings. People might worry that they could be trapped inside, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a public letter to the National Park Service.And, the lawyers added, \u201cthe very presence of a fence will send a clear message to the public that the park is only open by permission, and that permission may be withdrawn at any moment.\u201dLafayette Square has not had a permanent fence around it since 1889, when officials removed the cast-iron pickets and gates to make it more open to the public. Since then, the park has been closed for short periods for special occasions, like the arrival of foreign diplomats or large White House events, but Mr. Trump has a history of closing it for longer stretches.During Mr. Trump\u2019s first term, the administration closed the park off during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. The closure followed an incident in which law enforcement officers violently cleared protesters from the park with tear gas and flash grenades. The park remained closed for more than 11 months. Police officers advancing on Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House in June 2020. Erin Schaff\/The New York Times And this year, the park was boarded up for eight months with a patchwork of temporary barriers. Administration officials said at the planning commission meeting in September that the park was closed, in part, for renovations. When Times reporters visited the site in August, however, construction appeared to have been completed.Some of those barriers on the park\u2019s northern edge were pushed back last week, opening part of the space. The administration told The Times that the Secret Service was working to make the park more accessible to the public while balancing the president\u2019s security needs. Doug Mills\/The New York Times Doug Mills\/The New York Times A majority of the space remains blocked off. The Trump administration has said a permanent fence is also necessary to replace temporary barriers that are used now.Those temporary barriers could easily be removed when a new president came in, but it would take a lot more effort to remove a permanent fence, said Jeffrey Hou, head of the architecture department and co-director of the Civic Resilience Laboratory at the National University of Singapore.Yet, for most of the park\u2019s history, the space has been known for its openness and permeability. Some protests have flooded the park for a single day, while others have quietly held their ground for longer. One woman, Concepcion Picciotto, camped there in protest of nuclear arms for decades.It\u2019s a place where \u201cyou can physically be seen and heard by the people that you\u2019re directing your attention and your message to,\u201d said Cara A. Finnegan, a professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies photography as a tool for communication. 1974 Watergate protest1991 Persian Gulf war protest2017 Trump immigration policy protest2023 Pro-Palestinian demonstration1918 Women\u2019s suffrage rally In 1974, people gathered directly in front of the White House to demand President Richard Nixon\u2019s impeachment. A 3-D scene shows the north entrance of the White House from the perspective of someone standing on Pennsylvania Avenue. Overlaid on the scene is a photograph from 1974 of protesters lining the sidewalk outside the White House and a truck with a large \u201cImpeach Nixon\u201d sign on it. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush heard antiwar protesters from his bedroom. \u201cThose damned drums are keeping me up all night,\u201d he said. A photograph from 1991 is overlaid on the scene. A handful of people are performing on a stage, and a crowd has gathered around them. A large sign that reads \u201cThere Will Be 2 Wars\u201d is visible behind the performers. During Mr. Trump\u2019s first term, large crowds gathered in 2017 to protest his administration\u2019s anti-immigrant policies. The view pans to the center of the park. Overlaid on the scene is a photograph from 2017 showing a large crowd of protesters. One of their signs reads \u201cStarted With Undocumented Mom & Dad Now I\u2019m a College Grad.\u201d In 2023, the park was the final stop for a pro-Palestinian march. The view pans again and a photograph from 2023 is overlaid on the scene. The photograph shows a large crowd of people, many dressed in rain jackets, carrying Palestinian flags and banners. Suffragists were among the first to picket in the park in the early 1900s, inaugurating a century-long tradition of protests. The view moves to a different area of the park where the Marquis de Lafayette statue sits. A photograph from 1918 is overlaid on the scene, and shows four women standing in front of the statue, carrying signs demanding voting rights for women. \nNote: To create the 3-D view of Lafayette Square, The Times captured video of the area from multiple vantage points inside the park in August and used specialized software to synthesize the footage into a navigable 3-D scene. Times journalists then matched the historical photos to their vantage points and layered them onto the 3-D scene. The 3-D model of Lafayette Square is based on plans submitted by the Trump administration to federal review panels on July 16 and Sept. 3. The 3-D model of the White House shows the East Wing before President Trump demolished it to build a ballroom.Photos in the 3-D scenes are by Byron Rollins\/Associated Press (1963 civil rights memorial); Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post, via Getty Images (2018 immigration rally and march); MPI \u2014 Archive Photos, via Getty Images (1974 Watergate protest); Fugazi Live Series (1991 Gulf war protest); Win McNamee\/Getty Images (2017 Trump immigration policy protest); Celal Gunes\/Anadolu, via Getty Images (2023 pro-Palestinian demonstration); and Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress (1918 women\u2019s suffrage rally). Additional 3-D data is from Open Data DC and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Sources: Elliott Maltby of the landscape architecture program at the Pratt Institute; Jeffrey Hou of the architecture department at the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore; Dana Taplin of the Public Space Research Group at the City University of New York.Additional production by Jeffrey Furticella and Jeremy White."
}