President Donald Trump’s controversial arch project was approved following a lengthy public hearing in which members of the public spent hours detailing their opposition to it.
Preliminary site and building plans for the 250-foot gilded ‘Arc de Trump,’ planned for Memorial Circle near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., were approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, one of the numerous federal agencies the president has staffed with his allies.
During the three hours of public testimony, multiple people raised concerns about the arch’s height and its potential to obstruct views of the cemetery. At 250 feet, it would be more than twice as tall as the nearby Lincoln Memorial, and taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
One testifier highlighted the similarities between Trump’s arch and an arch that Adolf Hitler wanted to erect in Berlin during his reign of terror, according to the National Journal’s Hannah Thacker.
“The arch is fascist in design,” the person said. “Not surprisingly, it resembles an arch Hitler wanted to build in Berlin,” they added, before holding up images of both arches.
“I’m not sure what you think you’re accomplishing,” Commission Chairman Will Scharf, who also serves as a White House staff secretary, replied.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The meeting saw more criticism. Most of the more than two dozen people who appeared virtually or in person voiced their concerns, ABC News reported.
“I come to you as the person this arch claims to honor, and the person raised to protect what it would destroy. It betrays both,” said Linsay Burnett, according to the outlet. Burnett served in Iraq as a combat photographer and public affairs sergeant.
“Under this plan, families would lower their loved ones into the ground to the sound of pile drivers. Taps against a concrete pump. We ask our dead for everything. The least we owe them is silence, and for three years we would deny them even that,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chair of the Heritage Conservation Committee at the Society of Architectural Historians, Priya Jain, told the commission, “Reject this hasty and inappropriate proposal,” according to the Washington Post. “Respect public opinion and engage in a deliberative design process to ensure that we end up with a fitting memorial for America’s 250th anniversary.”
Triumphal arches date back to ancient Rome; while the Arc de Triomphe on Paris’ Avenue des Champs-Élysées is the most famous example, similar arches can be found across the world, particularly in Europe. Washington Square Park in New York City is home to the Washington Arch, which was built to commemorate the anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration.
Chief Nazi architect Albert Speer designed a triumphal arch to be built in Berlin, three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, as part of Adolf Hitler’s plan to remake the German capital in his own image. The project was largely abandoned due to the escalation of World War II; however, its test structure remains.
Trump’s own arch is just one of the many projects the president has initiated in his attempt to transform D.C. Other examples include his exorbitantly expensive ballroom renovation, which involved demolishing the East Wing of the White House in order to construct a $600 million version in his signature gaudy style.
He has also renovated other parts of the White House, tearing up the Rose Garden and replacing it with a concrete patio, adding a “Walk of Fame" to the West Wing Colonnade, and stuffing the Oval Office with as many golden objects as he can find.
According to National Park Service documents published last month, the Trump administration is scrambling to complete the president’s arch before his term ends, with experts telling the Washington Post that the timeline for the project is “unusually aggressive for a nonemergency project.”
To meet the 2028 deadline, construction workers would need to work 20-hour days year-round for two to three years.
Trump lackey Scharf said that a final approval vote could take place at the commission’s next meeting in September.
“I think commemorating America’s 250th anniversary is important,” he said. “I think that the proposed arch is a fitting commemoration of 250 years.”
Paul Ingrassia, who was appointed acting general counsel of the General Services Administration by Trump in December and serves as one of the panel’s commissioners, said of the arch, “I think it’s long overdue as something that should be seriously considered in the city.”
The panel voted 8-1 to approve the project, with Trump allies and congressional Republicans all voting in favor. One commissioner who represents Washington, D.C., voted against it, while three others who also represent the capital voted “present.”
