Ashburton House

On June 1, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., law enforcement officers used tear gas and other riot control tactics to forcefully clear peaceful protesters from outside Lafayette Square surrounding streets, creating a path for President Donald Trump and senior administration officials to walk from the White House to St. John's Episcopal Church. Trump held up a Bible and posed for a photo op in front of Ashburton House (the church's parish house), which had been damaged by a fire during protests the night before.The clearing of demonstrators from streets bordering Lafayette Square was widely condemned as excessive and an affront to the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. Just before visiting the church, Trump delivered a speech in which he urged the governors of U.S. states to quell violent protests by using the National Guard to "dominate the streets", or he would otherwise "deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem".Former military leaders, current religious leaders, and elected officials from both parties condemned Trump for the event, though some of Trump's fellow Republicans defended the actions. The event was described by The New York Times as "a burst of violence unlike any seen in the shadow of the White House in generations" and possibly one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency. Civil liberties groups filed a federal lawsuit against Trump, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and other federal officials, alleging they violated protesters' constitutional rights. General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later apologized for his role in the photo op.A June 2021 Interior Department Inspector General review of U.S. Park Police actions found that Park Police cleared Lafayette Square as part of a plan to erect fencing. The Park Police incident commander was reportedly stunned when Barr informed him of Trump's impending visit. That report also confirmed the use of tear gas by D.C. Metropolitan Police, revealed Park Police did not request deployment of Bureau of Prisons to the park, and reported that it was not known why U.S. Secret Service had deployed ahead of schedule, advancing on protesters before the Park Police had a chance to warn protesters to disperse. The report also indicated that Park Police commanders could not identify who gave the order to deploy or why radio transmissions were not recorded.

St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square is an historic Episcopal church located at Sixteenth Street and H Street NW, in Washington, D.C., along Black Lives Matter Plaza. The Greek Revival building, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, is adjacent to Lafayette Square, one block from the White House. It is often called the "Church of the Presidents". Every sitting president has attended the church at least once since it was built in 1816, starting with James Madison. With the exception of Richard Nixon, every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has attended spiritual services on Inauguration Day, many at St. John's. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

A bronze statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko by Antoni Popiel is installed in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Park, in the United States.The statue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as a part of American Revolution Statuary in Washington, D.C. A copy of the monument was unveiled in Warsaw, Poland, in 2010.

On May 22, 2023, a U-Haul truck crashed into the north barriers of the Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. The driver, Sai Varshith Kandula, is accused of having intended to seize power.

The Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence (BLM Memorial Fence) was a two-block eight-month long protest art installation of Black Lives Matter memorials attached by visitors and community activists to the chain link fence outside the White House on H Street, between Vermont Avenue and Connecticut Avenue NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. in 2020 and 2021. The 1.7-mile (2.7 km) cordon of fencing around the White House was erected to move the growing crowds of protesters gathered at and around Lafayette Park after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. The Memorial Fence developed from June 2020 until it was dismantled and archived in January 2021. Members of the public worked together to maintain, protect, and then archive the thousands of signs and artworks that were offered by the public.

Black Lives Matter Plaza (officially Black Lives Matter Plaza Northwest) is a two-block-long pedestrian section of 16th Street NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. The plaza was renamed by Mayor Muriel Bowser on June 5, 2020, after the Department of Public Works painted the words "Black Lives Matter" in 35-foot (11 m) yellow capital letters, along with the flag of Washington, D.C., during the series of George Floyd protests taking place in the city.

The Cutts–Madison House (also known as the Dolley Madison House) is an American colonial-style historic home, now used for offices located at 1520 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house is best known for being the residence of former First Lady Dolley Madison, who lived there from November 1837 until her death in July 1849.The Cutts–Madison House is part of the Lafayette Square Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District. Now owned by the federal government, it is used as part of a federal courts complex.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries. While veterans' benefits have been provided by the federal government since the American Revolutionary War, a veteran-specific federal agency was not established until 1930, as the Veterans Administration. In 1982, its mission was extended to a fourth mission to provide care to non-veterans and civilians in case of national emergencies. In 1989, the Veterans Administration became a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency is led by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who, being a cabinet member, is appointed by the President. As of June 2020, the VA employs 412,892 people at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, benefits offices, and cemeteries. In Fiscal Year 2016 net program costs for the department were $273 billion, which includes the VBA Actuarial Cost of $106.5 billion for compensation benefits. The long-term "actuarial accrued liability" (total estimated future payments for veterans and their family members) is $2.491 trillion for compensation benefits; $59.6 billion for education benefits; and $4.6 billion for burial benefits.

Madison Place is a one-block street located in northwest Washington, D.C., across from the White House. It forms the eastern border of Lafayette Square (the northernmost part of President's Park) between Pennsylvania Avenue and H Street NW. Buildings on Madison Place include the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building, the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House, the Cutts-Madison House, and the Freedman's Bank Building. The street is part of the Lafayette Square Historic District.

The Lafayette Square Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District in Washington, D.C., encompassing a portion of the original L'Enfant Plan for the city's core. It includes the 7-acre (2.8 ha) Lafayette Square portion of President's Park, all of the buildings facing it except the White House, and the buildings flanking the White House to the east and west. The district was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

The Howard T. Markey National Courts Building (formerly the National Courts Building) is a courthouse in Washington, D.C., which houses the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It is located at 717 Madison Place NW, east of Lafayette Square and north of the White House, and borders the Freedman's Bank Building to the south, Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House at 721 Madison Place NW, the former Cosmos Club building at 725 Madison Place NW, and the Cutts-Madison House at 1520 H Street NW.

Andrew Jackson is a bronze equestrian statue by Clark Mills mounted on a white marble base in the center of Lafayette Square within President's Park in Washington, D.C., just to the north of the White House. Jackson is depicted dressed in military uniform, raising his hat with his right hand, while controlling the reins with his left hand as his horse rises on its rear legs.