The Trump administration released on Friday its design for a 250-foot triumphal arch that would face the Lincoln Memorial, part of a portfolio of projects intended to monumentalize the president’s time in Washington, D.C.
According to The New York Times, which first reported the news, the plan was submitted to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The federal design panel, composed of members appointed during the Trump administration, will deliberate on the proposal when convened next week.
The arch would rise at one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River and has been framed by its proponents as a means to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. President Trump introduced the project last October at a dinner held at the White House in honor of donors to another planned addition near Capitol Hill: a $400 million ballroom attached to the White House’s East Wing.
Guests at the dinner were shown models of the proposed arch featuring two eagles and a golden angel with outstretched wings, reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe. Trump said the angel represented Lady Liberty. Its planned location is essentially a gateway into the city for those crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge from Arlington National Cemetery, and it overlooks Arlington House, the former home of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
“At the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge,” Donald Trump reportedly said at the dinner, “you have a circle that was built 150 years ago. You have two columns on one side, two columns on the other, yet in the middle, just a circle. And everyone in the past had said something was supposed to be built there. But a thing called the Civil War interfered. That’s a good reason.”
Brandishing the models, he added: “Small, medium and large—whichever one, they look good. I happen to think the larger one looks, by far, the best.”
Triumphal arches were frequently employed in ancient Rome to commemorate military victories, sometimes incorporating spolia—looted architectural and sculptural elements—into their designs. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, stands as one of the most prominent modern iterations of the form.
The second Trump administration has been determined to cement its legacy in Washington, D.C. Last fall, a portion of the White House East Wing was demolished to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The demolition drew widespread outcry from preservationists, who condemned the intervention in a historic structure, as well as scrutiny over its legality.
Trump has also advanced plans for a new National Garden of Heroes, funded through federal arts and cultural grants that were initially distributed to arts organizations across the United States and later canceled by his administration.
The broader remodeling efforts are part of Trump’s “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again” initiative, which seeks to reinstate a policy favoring “classical” over modernist styles for federal buildings.
