Judge blocks construction of Trump’s planned ‘Triumphal arch’ military site
A US federal judge has temporarily halted construction of President Donald Trump’s planned “triumphal arch” in Washington. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered a 14-day hold before any building work can start, while the court weighs the project’s legality. The National Capital Planning Commission had voted earlier on Thursday to approve a 250-foot-tall arch inspired by Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.
Opponents object to the proposed site next to Arlington National Cemetery, the resting place of hundreds of thousands of US veterans, arguing it would block views of the cemetery. Representative Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California’s 2nd congressional district, urged the commission to reject it, saying the arch would “dishonour America, our ideals and our laws,” disrupt the solemn link between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington if built in Memorial Circle, and amount to a “tribute to Donald Trump.” Greg Wischer of the interior department countered that the arch would fulfil a “100-year plan to build a monumental work on Columbia Island.”
Trump has said Washington is the “only one” of the “59 top cities and capitals” without a triumphal arch and that it would now have “the greatest of them all.” In a September Truth Social post he said he had agreed to convert the arch, planned since the Civil War era at the Receptive Circle adjoining Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch” that could house drones and snipers on the roof and plaza and store large quantities of sniper ammunition. The arch is part of a broader push that has included restyling the White House and renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. In August 2025 he also signed an executive order entitled “making federal architecture beautiful again,” making classical architecture the preferred default for federal public buildings in the District of Columbia.
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