The Trump administration on Friday unveiled new renderings for President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch, his most significant effort to remake Washington’s skyline, as officials begin the process of seeking formal approval for the controversial project.
The renderings prepared by Harrison Design feature a golden inscription reading “One Nation Under God” on the arch, which is topped with a winged Lady Liberty statue and flanked at its base by statues of four golden lions. The project is slated for Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, which city planners have eyed for more than a century as the site of a potential monument.
The project is intended to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary. Built to Trump’s specifications, it would transform a small plot of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery into a dominant new monument. Architects and historic preservationists have warned that the planned arch, which would be more than twice the size of the roughly 100-foot Lincoln Memorial and tower over the nearby cemetery, would distort the intent of the existing memorials and obstruct pedestrians’ views.
The renderings were filed Friday by the Interior Department with the Commission of Fine Arts, a panel of advisers on the city’s architectural matters that Trump has stocked with allies. The commission is set to review the White House’s proposal at a meeting Thursday.
Friday was the first time that the administration has formally filed plans for the arch, a project that Trump has spent months teasing on social media and in the Oval Office. The latest arch design features significant differences compared to early concepts, such as the removal of columns and the addition of golden treatments — including a pair of eagles that were not golden in an earlier mock-up seen in the Oval Office. The eagles’ wings, which were closed in early models, are now spread.
The White House said that the administration would go through “all legal requirements” to construct the arch, which officials called an “iconic” addition to Washington.
“It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.
Administration officials declined to share the project’s cost, saying that it was still being calculated, or comment on its potential funding. Trump has said he plans to draw on private donations for the project. Notus reported this week that the arch could also draw on taxpayer funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Harrison Design did not immediately respond to questions about the project.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr., a Trump appointee and the chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, proposed a memorial arch in Washington more than two decades ago. In an interview Friday, he signaled his support for the administration’s new proposal, including its planned location.
“There has never been a builder president like this one, since President [Thomas] Jefferson, and I think it’s time we had another,” Cook said. He added that he planned to scrutinize how the proposed project would affect pedestrians’ views of Arlington House, the former estate of General Robert E. Lee that sits on a hillside in Arlington National Cemetery, at Thursday’s hearing. Cook said he is particularly sensitive to Lee’s legacy because he is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, where Lee is now buried after serving as the school’s president.
Trump and the White House have previously defended the arch’s planned height, which would surpass Paris’s Arc de Triomphe — which is 164 feet high — and other memorial arches around the world.
“I’d like it to be the biggest one of all,” Trump told reporters in January. “We’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”
Under the law, certain parts of the city — including Memorial Circle — are considered protected land, and monuments built there would require congressional authorization. The circle sits narrowly inside the boundaries of Washington.
Charles A. Birnbaum, who heads the Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization, said that he worried the new arch would interfere with the “carefully choreographed” relationships between Washington’s existing monuments.
“This inaptly scaled monument would create a jarring and disturbing intrusion,” Birnbaum said in a statement Friday.
Military veterans and a historic preservationist sued the Trump administration in February, arguing that Trump’s planned arch would obstruct key views when visiting Arlington National Cemetery and interfere with the intent of nearby monuments. Public Citizen, a government watchdog organization, is seeking to halt the project until the administration secures approval from Congress and federal review panels. Democrats joined the challenge last month.
Trump was dismissive of the legal challenge this week.
“You got to be kidding,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, after being informed that military veterans were suing to stop the project. “I think it’s going very good, and our veterans are the ones that should like it.”
Trump has prioritized Washington-area construction projects in his second term, including a new visitors center at the White House and changes to Dulles International Airport, but some of his ideas have faced resistance. A federal judge last month halted the president’s plan to build a $400 million White House ballroom, saying that the administration needed approval from Congress for that project.
Trump’s desired arch does not appear to be broadly popular. Twenty-one percent of respondents polled said they support a planned 250-foot arch, while 52 percent opposed the project, according to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted in February.
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