The Trump administration’s plan to begin excavating for its massive new triumphal arch within two weeks drew an angry warning from a Democratic lawmaker.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday that work would begin at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
“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,” he wrote in a post on X.
But Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) appeared appalled at the development, accusing the Trump administration in a blistering series of social media posts of racing to make the project harder to stop before Republicans suffer a potentially devastating defeat in the upcoming midterms.
“Trump and Burgum are disregarding risks and rushing this towering monument to Trump’s vanity because they believe Republicans will get crushed in November,” Beyer wrote Thursday. “They believe, correctly, that the project will be endangered by a new Democratic majority that actually stands up to them.”
“This project is not even close to being ready for prime time,” the Democratic congressman, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, added.
Beyer argued that the arch cannot legally be built without congressional approval. He also accused officials of ignoring “real safety risks” to flights at nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
He described Trump’s project as a “monstrosity” that was “immoral and disrespectful to America’s fallen heroes.”
Other political watchers across social media were equally as critical.
“This will desecrate the area around Arlington by literally dwarfing the cemetery,” wrote immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council. “What an insult to our fallen heroes.”
Ohio State University professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries called it another “needless, pointless” project “intended to satisfy the whims of a feeble, weak-minded man, who needs his ego stroked because he is devoid of substance.”
Trump and Burgum are disregarding risks and rushing this towering monument to Trump’s vanity because they believe Republicans will get crushed in November. They believe, correctly, that the project will be endangered by a new Democratic majority that actually stands up to them. https://t.co/hQSVPeUhYc — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) September 3, 2026
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