President Donald Trump already rejected moving the FBI headquarters to the “liberal state of Maryland,” and now he’s announcing plans to send the bureau to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. instead.

After years of work, Maryland officials had celebrated in 2023 when the federal government’s General Services Administration picked a site in Greenbelt in Prince George’s County as the future home of the FBI. The prospect of moving thousands of agents and employees to the suburb was seen as a boost to the local economy.

But Trump, a Republican who had stalled the FBI relocation process in his first term, threw cold water on those plans after he returned to the White House this year.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said of the move to Greenbelt during a speech at the U.S. Department of Justice in March. “We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DOJ have to be near each other.”

On Tuesday, the Trump Administration announced a different plan, but one that still leaves Maryland out: Move the FBI to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, which is home to government offices, private tenants and an events center.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump shut down, also was housed in the Reagan building.

“Moving to the Ronald Reagan Building is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Stephen Ehikian, acting administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, said in a statement that his agency worked with the FBI “to find a building that best supports their mission and their people.”

The Reagan building is owned by the federal government and sits less than a half-mile from the FBI’s aging J. Edgar Hoover Building.

The Trump Administration offered no information about the timing or cost of the move, though the GSA suggested billions of dollars would be saved by not building a new FBI headquarters.

Top Maryland Democrats blasted the move, and said they “will be fighting back against this proposal with every tool we have.”

In a statement issued by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s office, the Democrats reiterated their belief that Prince George’s County is the best site.

“Not only was this decision final, the Congress appropriated funds specifically for the purpose of the new, consolidated campus to be built in Maryland,” the statement read.

Redirecting that money to a different site is “both undermining Congressional intent and dealing a blow to the men and women of the FBI — since we know that a headquarters located within the District would not satisfy their security needs," the statement read. “Simply moving down the street would ignore the real threats the Bureau faces and further jeopardize the safety of those protecting our communities.”

The Van Hollen statement was also signed by U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks; U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer, Glenn Ivey, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, Sarah Elfreth, Johnny Olszewski Jr.; Gov. Wes Moore and Prince George’s County Executive Aisha N. Braveboy. All are Democrats.

The effort to pick a site for a new FBI headquarters has been going on for well more than a decade, with much of the competition between sites in Maryland and Virginia.

After Prince George’s County was picked by the U.S. General Services Administration in fall 2023, backers of a Virginia site protested.

A review by the GSA’s inspector general published earlier this year found that while there were flaws in the site selection process, none of them were serious enough to overturn the decision.

Once Trump returned to office, he became the biggest obstacle for the FBI project in Maryland.