President Trump is breaking ground on his 250-foot-tall triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, even before a federal review panel has approved the project.
Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, on Thursday announced plans for the excavation work.
“After a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch” he wrote in a social media post, adding: “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.”
The rush to push ahead with work on the arch follows a familiar pattern for Mr. Trump, who has frequently embarked on large-scale changes to historic properties in Washington without approvals from Congress or anyone else. And it comes days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to continue building a ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing.
Preservation organizations trying to block the president’s other construction projects had feared that the ruling would embolden the president to disregard those other legal challenges, too.
In this case, Mr. Trump has proposed building a 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial that he has said must be taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He has said the arch is meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, though he has also said that the arch is for himself.
The Commission of Fine Arts approved the design in May, even after the president rejected the panel’s suggestion to make the structure smaller by removing a towering, winged angel and two golden eagles. The administration has done preliminary testing of the site and has awarded $500,000 to an Oregon-based firm for an environmental assessment.
But Mr. Trump’s plans have not received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which has authority over building projects on federally owned land in Washington. Mr. Trump last month named Mark Paoletta, a lawyer in his administration and a close associate of Justice Clarence Thomas’s, to lead the planning commission reviewing the arch. The panel, which met on Thursday, is not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 1.
The arch has also not completed its review under the National Historic Preservation Act, another legal requirement.
Last week, the National Park Service published a final report acknowledging that the arch would disrupt the views and symbolism of dozens of other historically significant sites around the capital.
Mr. Burgum’s announcement suggests that the administration now feels empowered not just to disregard a lawsuit challenging the arch, but also legal requirements that it had previously committed to follow.
A group of Vietnam War veterans has sued to stop construction, citing the lack of congressional approval for the project and arguing that the arch would obstruct the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
“This demonstrates that they’ve never really taken seriously what they’ve been saying to the court, which is ‘allow the process to work itself out,’” said Nicolas Sansone, a lawyer with Public Citizen Litigation Group leading a challenge to the arch, referring to Mr. Burgum’s post.
That process, he added, has not worked itself out. “And yet here they are announcing to the American people that they’re proceeding with construction,” he said.
The administration previously committed to provide 14 days’ notice in a legal filing that it intended to start construction. Instead, Mr. Sansone said, that notice arrived in a social media post.
Representative Donald S. Beyer Jr., a Virginia Democrat whose district includes the nearby Arlington National Cemetery, said in a statement on Thursday that “this project is not even close to being ready for prime time,” adding that the Trump administration had “not won the legal battle over the proposal, which is plainly illegal without congressional authorization.”
Mr. Beyer said Mr. Trump and Mr. Burgum were “disregarding the risks and rushing this towering monument to Trump’s vanity because they believe Republicans will get crushed in November.”
The recent Supreme Court ruling, which allowed construction of Mr. Trump’s planned ballroom to proceed, means that preservation groups could have a hard time achieving the legal standing to sue. Before Mr. Burgum’s announcement, the administration on Thursday filed a legal notice arguing that the arch suit should be dismissed for the same reasons the Supreme Court turned away the ballroom challenge. On Wednesday, it filed a similar notice in the lawsuit challenging the president’s plans to build a luxury golf course in East Potomac Park.
Democrats have suggested that if they retake the House after the midterm elections, they could sue to stop the president’s construction projects that have bypassed Congress.
The Federal Aviation Administration has also studied the arch project, to assess its impact on a busy flight path in and out of Washington. It recommended red, blinking obstruction lights similar to the ones atop the Washington Monument be added — a common measure for large structures near airports.
Mr. Trump has not said whether he would follow that safety recommendation.
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