Veterans ramp up their fight on Trump’s ‘appalling’ triumphal arch next to Arlington National Cemetery
Veterans and families of fallen U.S. soldiers say that President Donald Trump’s 250-foot Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C. risks disrupting military burials at Arlington National Cemetery, as their fight against the project ramps up.
Democratic-aligned groups VoteVets and Home of the Brave joined forces this week to rally against Trump’s plans to install the enormous arch, which will sit at Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery.
In a video released on Tuesday, the groups warned against the project, which could involve 20 hours of construction per day and take two to three years to complete. The arch will also feature an observation deck for tourists that will overlook the city and the cemetery.
“Some ground isn’t for building on,” VoteVets said in a social media post. “Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their families. A 250-foot arch, with a tourist observation deck, would go up at its entrance, changing that ground forever.”
Paul Eaton, a retired major general and VoteVets adviser, said the plans were “entirely inappropriate and border on sacrilege.”
Eaton, whose father died in the Vietnam War and is buried at the cemetery, said that a burial takes place every weekday and construction would disrupt services.
The video also featured a Gold Star mother, Karen Meredith, whose son died in the Iraq War and is buried at Arlington.
“For me, Arlington has been a nice, quiet place,” Meredith said in the video. “We don’t need tourists overlooking funerals. I’m just appalled.”
The arch, designed to stand 86 feet taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, is one of many of Trump’s beautification projects in the nation’s capital. Its design is set to be topped with gold winged sculptures, in line with how the president has redecorated the Oval Office and other Washington landmarks.
Veterans have launched a lawsuit against the plans, arguing that the arch will tower over the cemetery and disrupt their experience of the hallowed space.
The National Capital Planning Commission has yet to offer its final approval for the project, while Democrats argue the administration needs congressional approval to move forward.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Friday that work will begin over the next two weeks.
“This will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World,” he wrote on X, arguing that various commissions and Congress have proposed that some kind of monument adorn the site for more than a century.
“Despite Congress’s intent, the site became and remains today a barren traffic circle lacking any monumental treatment and significant historic value,” he added. “In fact, the passage extending from Arlington Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery was meant to serve as an Avenue of Heroes.”
