I could be wrong, but I am guessing that MAGA and Trump 2028 hats and merch in the White House gift shop may soon go on Clearance Sale. Yet any sales momentum setbacks are very unlikely to deter this President from seeking to emblazon his name on additional monuments and edifices intended to last long after he is gone from Washington, D.C.
The Trump White House Ballroom, Trump Memorial Reflecting Pool, the Trump-Kennedy Arts Center (court-ordered removal), and the newly christened National Monument Oval Office, now tastefully decorated in gilded Rococo, more appropriate for the Palaces at Versailles, or a classier New Orleans House of Ill Repute. You be the judge.
And the latest, adding insult to these and other injuries—including paving the Rose Garden, nearly destroying the White House Lawn, and completely demolishing the East Wing of the People’s House—comes perhaps the second most egregious insult to the classic Greek architecture of our Capital City: the proposed Trump Triumphal Arch at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
President Trump and the First Lady visited France on a prior Bastille Day, the National Day of France, celebrated on July 14, in a fashion somewhat similar to our Fourth of July. The President was greatly impressed by a French Military Procession and Parade, paying tribute to the President of France, as well as several nearby French monuments, particularly the Arc de Triomphe. President Trump has already twice attempted to mimic the parade in Washington, D.C., rolling tanks and other armaments down main D.C. boulevards never designed or intended for those road beds to handle that type of weight load. Not sure what was paid or promised to President Macron in the way of tariffs for those imports, but the crowds and public reaction were less than enthusiastic, not unlike the middling success of America 250 this summer, also on parts of the National Mall.
Jealous of France?
But the President wants to TOP all other famous victory arches in the world by building a 250-foot-tall Triumphal Arch, gilded in gold and topped by a gold statue of Lady Liberty holding a flaming torch held high. Though this President regularly claims to have ended eight wars and won several—which is somewhat contradictory for his next Nobel Peace Prize nomination—I am hard pressed to count blowing up a few dozen fishing and alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela, followed by a regime change and the practical seizure, control and reverse nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry as a war victory. Perhaps some of that pirate booty, as the billions in funds from the sale of that Venezuelan crude remain unaccounted for, might finance the Trump Ballroom and a few of his other projects initially promised to be paid for without Taxpayer Dollars.
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris was inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome. Second only to the Eiffel Tower as a Parisian landmark, that arch is 162.5 feet tall (and quite imposing). It was commissioned in 1806 but not completed until 1836, at a cost at that time of roughly 20 million francs, or roughly $75 million in 2020 dollars. The Trump Triumphal Arch would be just less than 100 feet taller.
But I digress. Among the most impressive vistas in this nation, particularly if you have a patriotic heart and mind, is the view from our nation’s Capitol, looking down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, and beyond to the National Mall and monuments including the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial. And more recent additions include the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, as well as majestic monuments to the Veterans of World War II, Korean War and Vietnam Veterans. These landmarks form the core memorials along the Mall and Tidal Basin, from the center of the Federal District, across the Potomac into Arlington, Virginia.
Blocking views and access during construction to Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, more than 150 years ago the plantation home of Robert E. Lee and his family, inherited by the General through marriage to Mary Anna Randolph Custis, was seized by the federal government near the beginning of the Civil War. The Plantation House and grounds had a slightly higher elevation and straight shot views of the Capitol building, and they were within cannon range for potential Confederate fortification. As Union casualties soon began to outstrip available cemeteries during that war, the War Department decided the Rose Garden of the Arlington Custis-Lee Manor would be a worthy burial ground for 90 unidentified Union casualties—the beginnings of what has become some of the most sacred and hallowed grounds in our nation, holding the remains of veterans of every U.S. military conflict since, at Arlington National Cemetery.
As Trump skyscrapers go, 250 feet sounds dwarfish, but the Washington, D.C. skyline is perpetually limited by federal statute to prevent blocking views of the Capitol dome and other major monuments. The traffic circle, standing outside the cemetery, but on the primary entrance to Arlington and a short walk from the Arlington Metro Station, would completely block views of the cemetery entrance, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and several other prominent memorials and edifices within the burial grounds. And in reverse, from inside the cemetery, a massive arch would also block views back across the Potomac, of the National Mall, the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and on clear days…the U.S. Capitol Dome.
NO precedent for a President unilaterally altering the National Mall
Adding to the precedent of a President unilaterally altering the National Mall, without Congressional approval, or moving through the standard operating procedures for designing and constructing historic monuments, the President later announced he would wrap his latest pet project into ‘needs of national security.’ This Arch will house a major military Armory, as well as Drone Launching capacity. Every other major weapons armory in the nation is heavily secured, protected and housed within guarded military installations or National Guard posts. Announcing the location of a strategic drone fleet for national defense purposes would also seem to draw a target directly atop the gilded head of Lady Liberty. Although the Pentagon makes much more sense for both capabilities and lies only a few miles away, this new 250-foot structure also lies directly within multiple flight paths into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is also very close by. What could go wrong?
Multiple historic preservation groups, a federal judge and several veterans’ organizations have already come out in public opposition. Final costs for the project are indeterminate. Trump originally promised private funding, but much like the Trump Ballroom’s ballooning costs, while there was private fundraising, more than a billion in public funding is expected to be needed to complete both the Presidential Bunker underground and the perhaps out of scale White House addition. Come January 2027, a Democratically controlled U.S. House, at least for the next couple of years, is expected to not be too charitably disposed to fund Trump pet projects. A lame-duck President, freshly shellacked by the voters, is also much less likely to be a champion fundraiser.
But I will give this President some credit, he is a fighter and of the ‘never give up,’ never-say-die variety. I have little doubt that heavy machinery will be moving towards that Arlington traffic circle in the next couple of weeks. He may well never finish his latest monument to his own ego and hubris, but that doesn’t mean he won’t start. If you hold veteran cemeteries as sacred, on this Veterans Day…please loudly say NO to this Triumphal Trump-Full Arch.
