President Trump’s widespread firing of federal workers threatens to destabilize a Washington economy closely intertwined with the fate of government employees.

More than 80 percent of the nation’s federal employees are located outside Washington, but the concentration of workers in the capital means President Trump and Elon Musk's plans are sure to have an outsize impact locally.

The D.C. government dropped its projection for how much the government will take in annually over the next five years, lowering its estimate by roughly $342 million because of a forecast for “sharp declines” in the federal workforce.

Internal data from Bank of America shows credit card spending in Washington has dipped since February, something the bank concluded was “likely due to the impact of DOGE cuts.”

Unemployment filings also jumped for D.C., Maryland and Virginia across both February and March.

“When people either lose jobs, or when they even just fear losing a job, they tend to cut back on spending. It’s not a time to buy a new car, or a new house, or even go on vacation or go to a restaurant. So people might be trying to beef up their emergency funds that can have a pretty significant effect on the local businesses, which then might lay off workers,” said Julia Pollak, who is now the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor but who spoke to The Hill while working as the chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

“So that's why even a small increase in the unemployment rate can snowball quite quickly.”

Since Trump took office, agencies have fired thousands of federal workers.

But the full force of the planned layoffs has yet to be felt.

Agencies this month are scheduled to provide plans for widespread reduction in force, and the Trump........

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