Democrats rip White House plan for ‘Arc de Trump’

WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of Democratic lawmakers have joined U.S. military veterans in urging a federal court to block President Donald Trump’s plan to build an enormous arch in the nation’s capital, arguing the project tramples on constitutional separation of powers.

The proposed 250-foot arch, Democrats told a federal judge in a recent court filing, can’t be built on federal land in Washington without an act of Congress. They say allowing Trump to move forward with the monument could lead to an “unchecked proliferation” of presidential construction projects in the future and could threaten existing public spaces in the district.

The White House in January said it was looking to build the massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from D.C. proper, to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary this year.

Bur critics have worried the proposed monument — which would sit inside Memorial Circle in front of the national military cemetery, would dwarf other commemorative sites in Washington. If built, the arch would tower over the Lincoln Memorial, which stands at just around 100 feet tall.

And, in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last month, an architectural historian and a trio of Vietnam War veterans pointed out the arch would block the symbolic view from Lincoln’s monument to Arlington House, the memorial to Confederate General Robert E. Lee located at the top of the national cemetery.

In an amicus brief filed in that case last week by a group of top Democrats on the House and Senate’s natural resources committees, lawmakers pointed out concerns about the proposed Trump arch went beyond the cohesion of Washington’s skyline.

“Congress has long specified that only it has the authority to approve the placement of monuments and memorials on federal land in the District of Columbia,” wrote the Democrats, which include California Representative Jared Huffman, Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich and Maine Senator Angus King.

Though Arlington National Cemetery is located within Virginia, the traffic circle where the White House envisions its triumphal arch sits within the district’s borders.

The group of lawmakers cited a 1912 law which they said blocked the president or any other entity from building monuments on public land in Washington without congressional approval. And the 1986 Commemorative Works Act, they added, stood up a “rigorous and structured” process for authorizing and siting new memorials.

“[I]t ensures that new commemorative works are the product of deliberation, consensus and accountability through the legislative process — just the opposite of President Trump’s impulsive, unilateral decision to erect an ‘Independence Arch’ in Memorial Circle,” said the Democrats.

The president’s proposed anniversary arch is also located in an area within the capital city, designated by the Commemorative Works Act as a place with an “especially pronounced” risk of overcrowding monuments, the lawmakers continued.

“Absent express congressional approval, construction of a permanent commemorative structure, like the arch President Trump plans to erect, flouts these laws and the separation of powers principles that they embody,” the Democrats wrote.

If the White House hopes to move forward with its project, they said, federal law requires House and Senate committees to consult the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission, an eight-member body composed of the National Park Service director, the architect of the Capitol, the mayor of Washington and other officials. Then, “with the benefit of that input,” Congress must vote to approve Trump’s arch.

And because of the proposed arch’s placement in an area vulnerable to overcrowding, the Democrats said the White House would need to secure a second congressional authorization confirming the monument “is of preeminent historical and lasting significance to the United States.”

“Congress and its members have an institutional interest in preventing unilateral executive action, such as the president’s apparent plan to build the Independence Arch, that would bypass or nullify that statutory framework and undermine the separation of powers,” the group of lawmakers told the court.

Former President Joe Biden oversaw the opening of Washington’s most recent monument, a memorial to U.S soldiers who died in World War I. That site, located in Pershing Square near the White House, opened in 2021 and cost roughly $42 million to build.

Trump’s proposed triumphal arch is estimated to cost roughly $100 million. But the president has long been keen on the idea of erecting such a monument in the capital, which he’s said he wants to be the “biggest one of all.”

“We’re the biggest, most powerful nation,” he told reporters in January. “I’d like it to be the biggest one of all.”

The Trump administration has set an ambitious plan for celebrating the country’s 250th birthday this summer, with a bevy of events scheduled across the country including a naval parade in New York, a UFC fight on the White House lawn and an IndyCar race through the streets of Washington. The festivities are set to climax on July 4, with a fireworks display in the nation’s capital which organizers have said will be the biggest in U.S. history.

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