Donald Trump’s own officials just listed almost 40 landmarks in and around the nation’s capital that his tacky “triumphal arch” would adversely affect.
The gilded monument, nicknamed the “Arch de Trump” after France’s Arc de Triomphe, is destined for Memorial Circle, the roundabout leading to Arlington National Cemetery. It’s set to rise to 250 feet, dwarfing the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac River. Trump, 80, is racing to get it built before his term ends in January 2029.
The updated roster of sites it will negatively impact, reported by The New York Times on Monday, comes from a review by the National Park Service under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Roger W. Kirchen, Virginia’s state historic preservation officer, wrote to the agency in June that the damage promised by the arch is the whole point of the project. It is “intended to dominate the surrounding landscape,” he said.
Officials who reviewed the plans found the structure would obscure what mourners see from the Eternal Flame marking President John F. Kennedy’s grave. It would also sever the planned axis linking Arlington House, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s former home, with the Lincoln Memorial—a corridor laid out to mark national healing after the Civil War. The arch would also push into the frame at the Jefferson Memorial’s steps, on Georgetown’s waterfront and from the top floors of the U.S. Capitol.
Ed Stierli, vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told the Times that the designs mean “you’re building something that will irreversibly harm the experience in these other locations.”
Outside groups have until Thursday to file comments before the review is finalized. Final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump has filled with allies, could come at a meeting scheduled for Sept. 3. The Park Service did not respond to the Times’ questions about how the review has been run.
Gary Langston, a retired U.S. Army colonel who has objected at the project’s public hearings, asked officials to picture a veteran at a service member’s grave. “You’re going to see this thing looming over you,” he told the paper. Veterans also warn that building work, forecast by the administration to run 20 hours daily over several years, will intrude on funerals.
The White House is standing by the project. “It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery,” spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to the newspaper. The Daily Beast contacted the White House for further comment. Ingle said “the Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world.”
The arch is one thread in a wider redecoration of the capital. Trump tore down the White House East Wing to make way for a $600 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, with taxpayers covering more than half. His $14 million “American flag blue” refit of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool succeeded only in turning its waters a brilliant, algal green that the president has claimed is the work of vandals rather than the contractors he hired for the job.
His handpicked Kennedy Center board voted in December to put his name on the building. A judge later ordered it stripped from the facade. He has also put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, paved over the Rose Garden lawn, and unveiled a $22.5 billion overhaul of Washington Dulles International Airport—the same airport he had earlier pushed to have renamed for himself.
The Daily Beast contacted the Department of the Interior for comment from the National Park Service. “Great nations build beautiful structures and works of art that cultivate national pride and love of country,” a spokesperson said, calling the arch “a project that all Americans can be proud of.”
