ARCH ENEMIES

Trump’s Tacky Arch Plans Hit With Humiliating Reversal

Trump’s handpicked allies gave his 250-foot monument the green light. A federal judge had other plans.

A federal judge slammed the brakes on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch Thursday night, less than 60 minutes after a MAGA-friendly planning commission gave the controversial monument its final approval.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, temporarily blocked construction for two weeks while she considers legal challenges brought by Vietnam War veterans, a historic preservationist, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Her order prohibits the Trump administration from beginning any construction-related work at the site, including excavation, demolition, and road closures.

GILT TRIP

Trump Signs Bonkers Scheme to Keep Oval Office Tacky Forever

William Vaillancourt

The ruling came less than an hour after the National Capital Planning Commission, which is stacked with Trump appointees, voted 8-4 to approve the arch following more than eight hours of public testimony, including fierce opposition from veterans, architects, and historians.

California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the arch “illegal” and warned that it would “dishonor America, our ideals, and our laws,” according to CBS News, while arguing that Congress—not the planning commission—should debate the proposal.

Marine veteran Jimi Shaughnessy condemned the proposed monument near Arlington National Cemetery, warning that “a dominating arch with a carnival-like atmosphere of tourists, food trucks, and buses is abhorrent and insulting to those who gave all and to their families.”

“Instead of focusing on the issues facing military families, this administration is intent on spending taxpayer dollars to site, plan, and design a monument no one asked for, and are content with bypassing any laws or regulations that may prevent them from breaking ground,” he added.

ARCH YOU KIDDING?

Top Trump Goons Make Wild Pitch to Judge to Save Vanity Arch

Will Neal

In a court filing ahead of the ruling, the attorneys general for Washington, D.C., and Virginia warned that construction would cause immediate and lasting damage.

“[A]s soon as Defendants break ground on this project, they will inflict irreparable harm” on them, they wrote, because “the Arch project will inevitably snarl traffic between the jurisdictions, produce pollution and stormwater runoff in the Potomac, interfere with emergency services, and pose numerous other challenges.”

Play Video

Stuart Levenbach, the planning commission’s Trump-appointed vice chairman, argued that the monument would improve Memorial Circle, a roundabout across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, but still in Washington, D.C.

“This important site that we’re talking about is little more than a tired traffic circle,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “It’s a patch of grass, ringed by a curb. The proposed arch would transform this place into a monumental gateway.”

Trump, 80, told reporters while touring his under-construction ballroom on Wednesday that the triumphal arch is “like the Arc de Triomphe, but better—more beautiful actually, much more beautiful.”

For now, however, the president’s grand plans are on hold—at least for the next two weeks.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

William VaillancourtReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.