With the federal government still shut down since Oct. 1, 2025, Washington’s official tourism bureau is reminding Americans to visit the city through its "DC is Open" campaign. 

The nation’s capital "remains open and ready to welcome visitors, with so much to see, do, eat and experience," the campaign says.

"The purpose is to amplify the message that despite the federal government shutdown, the city is open and continues to welcome business and leisure travelers," Destination DC (DDC) said in a recent press release. 

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Elliott L. Ferguson, II, DCC's president and CEO, said visitors should know most of the city’s attractions and experiences remain open. 

"We understand that when the federal government shuts down, some visitors may assume DC does too, but that’s far from the truth," he said in a statement. 

"Fall is a busy season for convention and leisure travel, so we’re spreading the word that visitors can still enjoy iconic attractions, stay in our incredible hotels, dine in our acclaimed restaurants and experience theater, sports, nightlife, arts and cultural events," he added. 

The "DC is Open" campaign was first launched during the government shutdown of Oct. 2013. It recently launched in 2021 during the city’s post-pandemic recovery.

The release reminds tourists that all open-air parks and memorials on the National Mall remain open, though some visitor centers and ranger-led services are limited. 

Private museums — such as the Museum of the Bible, Advancing the American Dream and the National Building Museum — are all unaffected by the shutdown.  

The Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are closed, however, per DDC.

Last year, 27.2 million people visited DC, spending $11.4 billion, according to DDC.

The tourism board is also reminding visitors about various ongoing sporting events, including those of the Washington Commanders and Washington Capitals.

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Metro and public transportation are operating as normal and DC government services are continuing, including sanitation, schools, parks and ancillary services.

The DCC notes that "the National Mall isn’t closed, it’s just quieter."

It suggests ways for visitors to enjoy the city during this time.

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"Walk from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial at sunrise when the marble glows gold. Circle the Tidal Basin to see the MLK and FDR Memorials reflected on still water," it says on its website. 

"Join a private guide for a night tour when the monuments light up, or map your own route with a coffee in hand from Compass or Bluestone Lane."

The organization also says on its site, "Shutdowns don’t stop the brunch crowd. Sip a Rickey at POV atop the W Hotel, order cacio e pepe at L’Ardente or find a cozy patio in Shaw, like All-Purpose. For something classic, try oysters at Hank’s or a sit-down dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. The best part? DC restaurants stay open and love local support right now."

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The government shutdown is heading into a fourth week, with the GOP's federal funding plan stalled in the Senate, as Fox News Digital has reported.

The House GOP passed its federal funding plan on Sept. 19, a seven-week extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 government spending levels, called a continuing resolution (CR). 

It was aimed at giving congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal on FY 2026 spending. But Democrats have wanted any deal to include an extension of COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of December.

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed reporting. 

New York City organizers embedded in the global intifada to destroy the state of Israel moved Friday to join the controversial "No Kings" protests planned for today, despite the peace deal reached between Israel and Hamas.

"UAW Labor for Palestine" and "NYC Labor for Palestine" quietly posted a call-to-action for the "Palestine Labor Solidarity Contingent" to meet Saturday at 11 a.m. at Duarte Square at the corner of Grand Street and Canal Street in midtown Manhattan and then flow into the #NoKings protests planned to protest President Donald Trump.

They’re not alone. Around the country, anti-Israel blocs are slotting themselves into the "No Kings" protests as a "Palestine Contingent" and "Socialist Contingent," positioning their messages "front and center," as Seattle activists put it, "from Providence to Palestine."

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The alignment underscores a strategic pivot in the global intifada’s next phase, experts say, carrying the anti-Israel message into any high-energy civic protest, even after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire by linking "Free Palestine" to domestic fights like ICE, police and "fascism."

Billionaire donor George Soros is reportedly funding many of the organizations leading the "No Kings" protests, like Indivisible, whose co-founders, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, received a $3 million two-year grant last year from Soros’s Open Society Foundations for "social welfare activities." Details about the "Palestine Contingent" weaving into the "No Kings" protests raises new questions about the way big Democratic donors like Soros are funneling nonprofit dollars into a professional protest industry that is fractious, divisive and partisan, potentially in violation of tax and nonprofit laws.

‘NO KINGS’ MOVEMENT AND WHAT IT WANTS: INSIDE THE MESSAGE DRIVING SATURDAY'S NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

Behind the emotion and patriotic imagery of the protests, a Fox News Digital investigation revealed that the movement’s polished "pro-democracy" branding masks a coordinated network of Democratic tax-exempt nonprofits and labor unions, political action committees, coalitions and for-profit protest consultants that include some of the most virulent activists against Israel, including self-declared socialist groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America and Students for a Democratic Society. 

According to a public database of the protest’s organizers, compiled by the Pearl Project, a journalism initiative, the protest’s "partners" include 265 mostly nonprofit organizations, including some anti-Israel groups, like Jewish Voice for Peace, exploiting their nonprofit benefits to wage a political war against the sitting president. Their nonprofit status shields them from paying taxes on most of their total annual revenues of $2.9 billion, even while they engage in partisan work they aren’t supposed to be doing. Critics say they are allegedly skirting, if not violating, tax and nonprofit laws. Event organizers didn’t return requests for comment.

"They call it ‘No Kings,’ but what they’ve built is an empire of tax-exempt organizations doing the Democratic Party’s work on the taxpayer’s dime," said Jennica Pounds, a computer scientist who runs a platform, DataRepublican.com, following the money on these organizations. "They are using every excuse in the book, from immigration to Israel, to rage-bait America. There is nothing ‘charitable’ about their professional protest enterprise, and they should be investigated for fomenting so much hate in America behind the shield of ‘charity work.’" 

Already, Trump has said that he has directed the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has opened an investigation that follows the money to anti-Israel groups, including some of the groups who will be bringing their protest signs to the "No Kings" demonstrations. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, "The Trump administration and the Republican Congress are committed to countering this network of left-wing violence."

Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson called the protests a "hate America rally." Indeed, on June 14, at the "No Kings" protest in Philadelphia, activists from the "Palestinian Contingent," including activists from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Democratic Socialists of America, hissed as a woman sang the national anthem. 

"Booooo! Boooooo!" they yelled, covering their faces in keffiyehs, carrying Palestinian flags and heckling bystanders, "Zionist!" 

While organizers insist the movement transcends party lines, its structure tells a different story. 

The protest network’s official "partners" include 24 Democratic political action committees that make no secret of their partisan agenda, dedicated to electing Democratic politicians. Among them are the mega-organizing group Indivisible Action, Hollywood Democrats and the Democratic National Committee’s Washtenaw County Democratic Party in Michigan, Westside Democratic Headquarters in Los Angeles, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club in northern California, 504 Democratic Club and College Democrats of America.

The motto of Field Team 6, another political action committee, is "Register Democrats. Save the World." However, those PACs are just one layer of a much larger partisan infrastructure. 

About one-third, or 79 groups, behind the "No Kings" protests hold 501(c)(3) status, meaning their donors receive tax deductions while the groups face strict restrictions to do "charitable" work, not political work. They are supposed to be nonpartisan. Yet most have clearly stated political agendas. 

On its donation page, one of the protest partners, "Build the Resistance," states a partisan mission to "fight against autocracy, fascism, and donald [sic]." Donations go to Oil and Gas Action Network, a 501(c)(3) that reported $1.9 million in revenues in its last tax filing.

Another 100 are 501(c)(4) political nonprofits that may do limited lobbying but still cannot devote themselves primarily to political work. Meanwhile, 24 are 501(c)(5) labor union nonprofits, like the labor unions marching against Israel in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, that also have limits on the amount of political work they can do.

It’s clear that the protests are all about politics. The protest’s own internal online "toolkit" mentions Trump 12 times and describes the mobilization explicitly as a direct stand against "the Trump administration," "Trump and his enablers," "President Trump’s authoritarian takeover" in a partisan-centered campaign.

In Rhode Island, the "Free Palestine Contingent" activists will march "FROM PROVIDENCE TO PALESTINE" to "FIGHT FASCISM! FIGHT GENOCIDE." It connects the battles against ICE law enforcement officers and the battles of Palestinians, noting, "Military occupations and ICE violence are wreaking havoc in Black and brown communities in D.C., L.A., Chicago — and here in Providence. On the streets of U.S. cities, the same weapons and surveillance technologies the Israeli military has used to devastate Gaza are being used in escalated ways against us. What we allow fascists to do in Palestine, they will do to the entire world — and it is our duty to resist them and fight for a free Palestine.

In northern California, activists at "Bay Area Labor 4 Palestine" and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 announced yesterday, "The fight for a liberated Palestine is not over and cannot be ignored," over a graphic for the "No Kings" protest. They instructed followers to "Bring flags, signs, keffiyehs and art" to the "No Kings" march in Oakland, Calif., at Wilma Chan Park off Jackson Street. 

In New York City, the "Palestine Labor Solidarity Contingent" said its message would be very specific: "STOP ARMING ISRAEL! FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT GENOCIDE & OCCUPATION! END ICE, MILITARY & POLICE TERROR…HANDS OF VENEZUELA!"

Across the country, in Washington state, activists from "Seattle Against War" yesterday celebrated local organizers adding an anti-Israel activist, Tariq Ra’ouf, to the official #NoKings speaker lineup, noting it will be a "great opportunity for us to support the demands of Palestinians from the belly of the beast!"

The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s local chapter in Syracuse, N.Y., posted a similar poster with the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, which has Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as its political candidate in New York City.

In Charlotte, N.C., the local chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation put out a call to members to assemble at 10 a.m. tomorrow for the local #NoKings protest at First Ward Park: "JOIN THE PALESTINE CONTINGENT @ THE ‘NO KINGS’ RALLY…MEET AT THE PLAYGROUND."

With local partners, including the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Jewish Voice for Peace, activists at the Party for Socialism and Liberation noted that, post-ceasefire, they will "continue to fight for a free Palestine." Some of the groups in the Palestine Contingent are part of the wider network of publicly acknowledged partners of the protests, like 50501.

In Eugene, Ore., activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation are rallying members to meet the "Socialist Contingent" at the corner of Mill Road and Eighth Avenue to "march for a free Palestine" and get ICE officers "OUT of our communities."

In Portland, a local Palestinian American activist announced, "The Nakba Is Still Not Over!" in a reference to the "humiliation" over the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. She summoned activists to the "No Kings" protests: "‼️SHOW UP FOR PALESTINE‼️"