Administration officials Thursday announced they would soon begin work to build President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, his most significant change to Washington’s skyline.
“We are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X.
The announcement comes three days after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to keep building his planned White House ballroom, with a 5-4 ruling that historical preservationists who sought to block that project lacked legal standing to bring their case to court.
That decision created new hurdles to other court challenges of Trump’s projects, legal experts warned, and Justice Department lawyers invoked it Thursday as they sought to dismiss a legal challenge to the arch.
The administration plans to build the arch in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries near Arlington National Cemetery. Trump has said that the arch will honor the nation’s 250th anniversary, vowing that it will be the largest triumphal arch in the world — about 86 feet taller than France’s famed Arc de Triomphe.
We are pleased to announce that 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 and Military Observation Deck, at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln… pic.twitter.com/8aff90jKNd
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) September 3, 2026
Historical preservationists, Democratic lawmakers and some Washington residents have opposed the project, calling it an oversize and inappropriate structure that will disrupt the historically solemn corridor between the military cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
It is also the subject of a lawsuit brought by several military veterans who say the towering structure would alter their experience when visiting the nearby military cemetery.
Administration lawyers Thursday asked a federal court to throw out the military veterans’ challenge to the arch, citing the Supreme Court ruling on the ballroom as precedent.
“Plaintiffs’ distaste for the perceived symbolism of the proposed arch does not establish a concrete and particularized injury,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
Administration officials have laid out an aggressive timeline to potentially complete the arch within two to three years, saying that crews would work 20 hours per day, year-round. Trump and his deputies also contend that they do not need approval from Congress because lawmakers authorized a somewhat similar project a century ago that was never built.
“It was meant to be built for many years,” Trump said in the Oval Office in May. “The land is owned by secretary, by the Interior Department. We don’t need anything from Congress.”
The project already has received approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that reviews local design projects. The National Capital Planning Commission, a second federal panel that has been reviewing the project, has yet to issue final approval.
Democratic lawmakers have said that the arch must go through congressional review.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia), who represents the district that includes Arlington National Cemetery, said Thursday that the administration was speeding the project ahead of the midterm elections. He cited the possibility of Democrats retaking control of a chamber of Congress and creating new barriers to the president’s projects.
“They believe, I hope correctly, that the project will be endangered by a new Democratic majority that actually stands up to Trump,” Beyer said in a statement. “This project is not even close to being ready for prime time.”
Lawyers for Public Citizen, a watchdog group that is representing the military veterans, have urged a federal judge to halt the project, too.
“Frankly, I’m befuddled as to what sort of legal authority the administration thinks it has behind it,” Nicolas Sansone, Public Citizen’s lead attorney on the case, said Thursday, citing the lack of final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission.
A White House official told The Washington Post on Thursday that administration officials do not believe they need approval for their planned work at the arch site, which they characterized as different from construction.
“We will of course continue on our path of seeking final approval from all applicable entities,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planned construction.
Trump administration lawyers had told the judge that the project should not be halted because it had not officially begun. Officials also told the judge that they would provide the public at least 14 days’ notice before beginning construction.
Fifty-two percent of Americans are against the planned arch, compared with 21 percent who favor it, according to a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll conducted in April.
Trump has prioritized construction of the arch, along with the ballroom and other Washington-area projects.
“When completed, it will be, without question, the Greatest Arch of them all!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform in June.
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