A senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee is pushing back on the idea that federal money, particularly Pentagon funding, should go toward building President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) told reporters at the Capitol on Monday that military dollars are already stretched thin, reported Politico.
“There’s a lot of things that we need the military funding for — in fact, we’re short on military funding right now,” Simpson said, and he reiterated his objection when asked directly whether Defense Department money should fund the project at all. “If it was my choice, I wouldn’t put any of that money into the arch.”
Simpson’s comments came a day after Trump wrote on Truth Social that the arch, planned for a site less than a mile from the Pentagon, would double as a functional military asset capable of storing and deploying drones and snipers.
The Idaho Republican said the president’s new justification only strengthens the case for congressional scrutiny, calling the project “something that needs to be debated” and arguing other defense priorities should come first.
“I hope if they decide to do it, that they would come to Congress and ask for an appropriation for it if they’re going to use appropriated dollars to do it,” he said.
Simpson also criticized Trump’s decision over the weekend to bar three news organizations, including Politico, from the White House, as well as recent remarks from House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) suggesting reporters could be restricted from the Speaker’s Lobby.
“Just because you don’t like what the press is reporting — or the fact that they wouldn’t call it the Gulf of America or something else like that — that’s not the reason to ban the press,” Simpson said. “You should never ban the press. The press is what keeps us honest. So I don’t like what they’re doing.”
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