This year, the skeletons carry sandwiches.
All around town, Halloween décor reflects DC’s fascination with the case of Sean Dunn, aka “Sandwich Guy,” who the feds say flung a footlong sub at a federal law enforcement officer when Trump’s DC crackdown began this past August. Since then, Dunn has since become a symbol of local resistance, or if you haven’t had enough sandwich puns yet, a local hero.
Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of Sandwich Guy costumes this year, either: As Daniella Byck noted in a prescient post that declared dressing like Dunn to be Costume of the Year, “The best part of this costume is that it’s also deeply practical: No matter your plans, you’ll have a snack ready to go.”
Skelton on Capitol Hill holding a sandwich, a symbol of DC residents’ opposition to the federal takeover of law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/9QAN6J8RZb
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) October 27, 2025
The federal government is still struggling to make a case against Dunn stick. US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro slapped Dunn with a felony charge after the US sent armed agents to arrest him at home (he’d offered to turn himself in); a grand jury declined to view an airborne hoagie with the same gravity, and declined to indict him. Pirro’s office knocked the charge down to a misdemeanor. Dunn has filed a motion calling his prosecution vindictive; in an accompanying memorandum he argues that the government is “smuggling felony–level language into a misdemeanor charge.” If that motion does not prevail, Dunn’s trial will begin the Monday after Halloween.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
