TMZ is flexing in Washington, with high-profile results. What took so long?

A former reality TV star is in the sixth year of his presidency. His cabinet includes a former wrestling executive as well as a former “Real World” cast member who was filmed decades ago dancing in nothing but a towel. More than a half-dozen stars from the “Real Housewives” franchise just walked across Capitol Hill.

Shouldn’t TMZ have already been in Washington?

The tabloid gossip site that reinvented Hollywood and celebrity gossip coverage recently took on the nation’s capital with TMZ DC, deploying staff to confront lawmakers paparazzi-style in Washington and turning to the public to capture candid footage of politicians living their lives on the road. The push has already created some viral moments, including an image of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., holding a magic wand at Disney World as chaos gripped airport security lines due to congressional inaction on a funding bill.

On Friday, TMZ exposed its Beltway foray at the Pentagon, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling out the outlet and referring to them as “new members of our news group here” — a subtle dig that reflected his not-so-subtle campaign criticism of traditional media.

Washington and Hollywood have long had an uneasy relationship, with players in each power center harboring insecurities and misunderstandings about the other, while politics and entertainment have gradually coalesced into a single cultural force.

Previous efforts by TMZ to build a Washington bureau failed. But this time it might be different.

PHOTOS: TMZ flexes in Washington, with high-profile results. What took so long?

President Trump’s return to the White House further normalizes a particular form of celebrity culture in the nation’s capital that has made him a tabloid staple for decades. Additionally, Congress is currently embroiled in scandal, with three lawmakers resigning in April alone after various allegations, including sexual misconduct and fraud.

Additionally, a Gallup poll released this week found that disapproval of Congress jumped to 86 percent, tying the record. Only 33% of American adults approve of Trump’s overall job performance, according to an AP-NORC poll released this week. This represents a drop of 9 percentage points since the start of Trump’s second term.

Washington institutions are little appreciated

With Washington institutions so little regarded, the biggest surprise might be that TMZ hadn’t attempted such a maneuver sooner.

“I’m legitimately surprised they weren’t already here,” said Ana Marie Cox, who wrote the Wonkette blog, which covered Washington with rare irreverence in the early 2000s. “They’re actually a little late to the game.”

A representative for TMZ did not respond to a request for comment.

TMZ was founded in 2005 and is still run by Harvey Levin, a Los Angeles attorney and media personality who has had an on-and-off relationship with Trump. Over the course of a decade, TMZ has made a name for itself with a combination of shady and sensational celebrity news. Early in its life, TMZ published stories including anti-Semitic statements made by actor Mel Gibson during an arrest and an angry voicemail left by actor Alec Baldwin for his daughter.

But the site, whose initials refer to the 30-mile area from the historic center of Los Angeles’ television and film industry, really came into its own by announcing the death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and the drug use that led to it.

Its tactics can cross traditional journalistic boundaries, especially when it comes to paid sources. Beyond the professional misconduct involved in such arrangements, the payments could run afoul of congressional ethics rules. Levin did not deny paying for article advice, which is frowned upon by mainstream media.

And TMZ also had some high-profile failures, including reports that Beyoncé would perform at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which didn’t happen.

Some TMZ work is applauded

Still, some of TMZ’s early work in Washington is applauded.

Robert Thompson, an administrator professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, said the photo of Graham at Disney World was truly newsworthy because it showed lawmakers far from Washington in the midst of a political crisis. A representative for Graham did not respond to a request for comment.

TMZ published images of lawmakers from both parties leaving Washington during the recent congressional recess that overlapped with the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Beyond Graham, the site posted photos of Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Robert Garcia of California.

TMZ is not currently accredited by the congressional press boxes. This limits his coverage of Washington to walk-and-talk interviews on the sidewalks outside the Capitol or in the hallways of public office buildings — a hallmark of his ambush-style celebrity interviews.

Some interviews are entertaining for an informed audience. In a video this week, Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., appeared confused by questions about a party hosted by the gay dating and dating site Grindr before this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I don’t understand,” Downing said. “Is this a media company?

Others go in unexpected directions, sometimes touching and personal. When Rep. Lateefah Simon, Democrat of California, was asked how lawmakers were celebrating the 4/20 marijuana holiday, she explained how the day marked the anniversary of her father’s death.

“4/20 is the day my father died,” she said. “My father was an extraordinary man in San Francisco. I think of him every time there is 4/20.”

And sometimes the trapping nature of relationships backfires. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Democrat of Florida, was among the lawmakers whose image was taken away from Washington during the DHS shutdown. He was shown at his son’s basketball game, drawing defense from colleagues, including Republicans, who said he should not be ashamed of being a current father.

At Friday’s briefing, TMZ’s Charlie Cotton eagerly played into Hegseth’s portrayal of the “War Department” and the Trump administration’s assertion that war in Iran is necessary. “Would you consider changing the name again to the Department of Peace since that is what we are all looking for?” asked Cotton.

Hegseth gushed about this “big question” and declared that “the only institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every year is the U.S. military.”

The long history of the ambush interview

The TMZ approach is not particularly new. Longtime CBS correspondent Mike Wallace made a habit of what are called ambush interviews, capturing unprepared subjects on camera.

Before breaking news of an extramarital affair that would doom Democrat Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential campaign, Tom Fiedler confronted the Colorado senator in a Washington alley. A reporter for the Miami Herald at the time, Fiedler said he “didn’t intend to do that.”

“We just found ourselves in this situation,” he recalled this week. “At that point we knew he knew we were there to observe what he was doing. Our feeling was that we needed to let him know who we were so he wouldn’t think there was, worst case scenario, an assassination attempt stalking him.”

Nearly 40 years later, journalism in Washington is radically different.

The Washington Post cut nearly a third of its staff in February, dealing a brutal blow to the legendary newsroom. Other outlets are developing. The NOTUS website was renamed The Star, with the aim of filling the void left by the Post, particularly in terms of local and sports coverage.

Cox, the former Wonkette blogger, is now a writer living in Austin, Texas. Reflecting on her time in Washington, she said her goal was to “demystify politics and show that these are people who don’t necessarily deserve our respect.”

But she expressed concern about media coverage whose tone reinforces aspects of Washington that are rolling their eyes. If she started Wonkette today, she would have said, “I don’t think I’d be that funny.”

“It’s funny how we got here,” she said. “Mocking Donald Trump didn’t work.”