The midterm elections swamped Trump and his followers but failed to dampen the president’s ambition to stamp his identity on the nation’s capital. When not glorifying his golden ballroom, he’s everywhere pushing, no project more overpowering than his drive to build a Triumphal Arch at the D.C.’s Memorial Circle.
The massive 250-foot-tall Arch would obscure views between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. When proposing the structure last year, Trump was asked what the Arch was for. He responded, “Me.”
Yet despite Trump’s determination, there’s been a pause. After an appointed board approved the Arch, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s vanity project. Without the judicial stay, construction would have started the next day, Nov. 6.
In her 33-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chukhan found that the Arch first needed congressional approval and had skipped required environmental and historic reviews. Her 14-day stay will allow time for legal challenges from two lawsuits to make their way through the court system.
One of the suits was brought by a group of veterans, the other by Washington D.C. and the commonwealth of Virginia. Judge Chukhan noted that the Arch’s construction could prove costly to both Virginia and Washington D.C. while disrupting traffic at the cemetery, one of the region’s most visited sites. It also poses a hazard to planes traveling to and from Reagan International Airport.
The Kennedy family has also weighed in, suing to block the project, saying it would “obstruct the clear sightline of the Kennedy Gravesites” and “fundamentally alter the experience of visiting.”
On behalf of the White House, spokesman Davis Ingle blasted delay by “an activist district judge.” Earlier he had applauded approval by the National Capital Planning Commission, some of whose members were appointed by Trump. Ingle insisted that “the project will be fully vindicated, and we look forward to seeing completion of this magnificent arch – a tribute to 250 years of American greatness.”
Trump claims the Arch will double as a national security feature, housing swarms of drones and a sniper’s nest. National security is a defense the president has invoked to justify other dubious projects, including his ballroom.
However, public opinion has overwhelmingly opposed the Arch and its outsized height. In a letter to the New York Times, Navy veteran Robert CJ Krasner wrote, “When I look out on the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and beyond, I view Arlington National Cemetery. As I approach 80, I think of the day the view reverses – when I lie in that ground and visitors look back from my grave across the river at those same landmarks. That sightline is no accident. Arlington Memorial Bridge was deliberately built low to keep open the line between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, a gesture of reunion after the Civil War. An arch more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial would sever it. The view itself is a memorial. We should not lose it.”
That sentiment – wishing to keep views unobstructed – is shared by many whose loved ones lie in the hallowed ground. That number includes the author of this article. The grave of my father, who served in the Second World War, lies on the slope just below the graves of John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, both killed by assassins. My mother lies next to my father’s resting spot, they died young, still in their 40s.
Arlington is hallowed ground, a final resting place for those who served. Trump’s Arch is an illegal project, a monstrosity, a slap in the face of veterans and to history and the aesthetics of this sacred place.
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