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

The MAGA administration has a mind-boggling new justification for a proposed monument to the president’s ego.

Pete Hegseth and Markwayne Mullin are urging a judge to save Donald Trump’s tacky vanity arch, arguing it’s vital to defending the capital from enemy drones.

The Defense Secretary and Homeland Security Secretary made the pitch in sworn declarations filed Wednesday as they attempt to recast the proposed 250-foot structure as a military installation, even though official blueprints contain no such provisions.

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Hegseth hailed the arch as a “generational national defense opportunity,” arguing that its height would make it ideal for sensors, communications equipment, and counter-drone defenses.

Mullin added that existing facilities are ill-equipped to track hostile aircraft and said that security systems could be incorporated without changing the building’s design.

Their filings seek to persuade U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, not to halt construction on the controversial monument.

She is due to hear arguments on Friday after veterans and preservationist groups sued to stop the project.

It’s only the latest obstacle to Trump’s plans for the arch, after computer analysis found the structure would block sunlight from John F. Kennedy’s eternal flame for up to nine minutes on 18 days each year, according to the Washington Post.

The shadow would also sweep across more than 75,000 other graves at nearby Arlington National Cemetery over the rest of the year, the newspaper found.

The Trump administration is gunning to break ground on the monument two days after next week’s midterm elections despite the ongoing legal challenge.

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It’s only one piece of the president’s MAGAfied Washington makeover. He demolished the White House East Wing for the construction of a vast ballroom, oversaw a disastrous refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and tried to emblazon his name on the Kennedy Center, among other projects.

More than two-thirds of Americans are decidedly unimpressed by those efforts, according to a July poll by Ipsos. Around half said in a September YouGov poll they were opposed to the arch specifically.

Trump’s efforts to charge ahead with construction regardless come ahead of next Tuesday’s midterm elections, where his plummeting approval ratings of just 32 percent have helped Democrats gain a staggering 9-point lead in the race for control of the House and Senate.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

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