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RARING TO GO

Trump Team Reveals Shock Timeline for His Tacky Arch

The president is plotting an unpleasant surprise for voters.

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 15: U.S. President Donald Trump holds models of an arch as he delivers remarks during a ballroom fundraising dinner in the East Room of the White House on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump hosted organizations and individuals for a fundraising dinner for the new $250 million ballroom addition currently under construction at the White House. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Donald Trump could begin building his deeply unpopular D.C. “triumphal arch” just two days after the midterm elections in which his plummeting approval ratings threaten to devastate his party.

The 80-year-old president’s lawyers revealed the astonishing timetable in documents submitted to a federal judge on Wednesday. CNN reported that officials hope to secure permission for the gargantuan monument on Nov. 5.

An artist's rendering of U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed 'Independence Arch' near the National Mall in seen in this handout obtained on April 10, 2026.

Trump plans to begin construction on his arch two days after midterms.

U.S. Commission on Fine Arts/Handout via Reuters

The National Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the proposal that day, potentially clearing the way for work to start immediately if the Interior Department also approves.

Trump’s latest architectural monstrosity would tower over Memorial Circle, opposite Arlington National Cemetery.

Veterans have already taken the administration to court over fears it would intrude on military funerals, while preservationists warn it would ruin historic views across the nation’s capital.

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The president previously claimed that the extravagant structure would double as a military installation, complete with drones, sniper positions, and ammunition stockpiles.

But blueprints published last week contain no such facilities, instead describing it as a “ceremonial gateway.”

Trump’s efforts to remake D.C. in his own image have included demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House to make way for a $600 million ballroom, paving over the Rose Garden to create a Mar-a-Lago-style terrace, and smothering the Oval Office in gold decorations.

He has also installed an expensive granite helicopter pad on the White House South Lawn, ordered alterations to Lafayette Square, and overseen a disastrous $16 million refurbishment of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where an algal bloom turned the water a monstrous slime-green.

The president has also attempted to plaster his name across the Kennedy Center, and is pursuing a controversial overhaul of the East Potomac golf links in Washington, D.C.

Voters are overwhelmingly unimpressed by his vanity projects, with 65 percent saying they’re unhappy with his ballroom, arch, and Reflecting Pool projects, according to a July Ipsos survey.

Another poll this month found 59 percent believe he devotes an excessive amount of attention to his construction obsession.

Democrats have already poured at least $1.8 million into campaign advertising attacking the president’s extravagant vanity projects while ordinary Americans struggle with soaring living costs, driven in part by his war with Iran.

Voter dissatisfaction has translated into a staggering 9-point lead for Democrats ahead of the Nov. 3 polls, with analysts warning that Republicans could lose control of both the House and Senate.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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