(Continued in comments!) A little about DC.... Northwest DC is the nicest quadrant, specifically ALL areas west of Rock Creek Park. If you look at a map, you can see Rock Creek and the big green park area. Almost without exception, this is the safest part of the city. It is very liberal, Democrat, whatever- but serious street crime is pretty much nonexistent. There are few motels in NW I would not recommend or consider dangerous. Upper Georgia Ave, 5500 block and up has a few, but it's still safer than much of the rest of the city.
The New York Ave corridor (US Route 50) has a lot of motels but it is sketchy. Lots of people are permanent residents those motels and probably a lot of the drugs and shit we'd all like to avoid.
How is the DuPont circle area?
Very liberal and quite the gay. Million dollar row houses that would cost a tenth in Cleveland, but safe. You may draw some attention w/ Trump gear in this area and there is kind of a trendy crowd- few street tweakers, but definitely opponents. If you get a Air BNB or something there, it will probably be fine.