Two Cabinet officials on Wednesday told a federal judge that President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch must be built because it will help defend Washington from drones and other threats.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin detailed the arch’s potential security features as part of legal filings that the administration submitted ahead of a hearing on Friday. Both officials said Washington faces “continuously evolving” threats and that Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall arch — positioned by the south end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge — would offer a perch to coordinate officials’ security response, deploy snipers and take other steps to defend the region.
“The Arch is a generational national defense opportunity to mitigate these evolving threats,” Hegseth said in his declaration, under penalty of perjury. “It will be utilized as a dual-purpose structure: a major national monument that also incorporates military utility to support Homeland defense.”
The administration’s legal filings Wednesday also detailed the project’s timeline: Construction crews could break ground as soon as Nov. 5, but aboveground construction would not begin until May 2027 at the earliest and construction could stretch into 2030, Justice Department officials said.
The filings come as the administration seeks to again fend off a lawsuit calling for a halt to Trump’s controversial project. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan will hear arguments Friday afternoon about whether to prevent construction.
Trump wants to build the arch at Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries near Virginia and the entrance to Arlington Memorial Cemetery.
Three Vietnam War veterans and a historic preservationist have sued the administration, arguing that the towering arch would disrupt the experience of visiting the cemetery and interfere with the intent of other nearby monuments.
They and other groups, including advocates for the national parks, historic preservationists and architects, also said Trump’s project cannot proceed until Congress formally approves it.
The administration argues that they have legal authority to proceed with the arch because a 1924 report by a federal commission charged with designing the Arlington Memorial Bridge called for building a pair of 166-foot-tall columns, surmounted by statues, on the site. That report was authorized by Congress a year later, but the columns were never constructed.
As part of Wednesday’s filings, officials submitted documents intended to bolster that argument, including deliberations from the 1930s and 1940s about whether to build a structure at the site.
The project has faced some skepticism and opposition. A September YouGov poll found that 48 percent of Americans oppose the arch and 30 percent support it, with the remaining 22 percent unsure.
After initially describing the arch as a structure intended to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, the administration has increasingly couched the project in national security terms.
Trump last month said that he planned to convert the arch from a tourist destination into a “military complex,” raising additional safety and legal questions, including whether the project needed to undergo additional reviews since its purpose had changed.
The administration subsequently released final plans that did not make any mention of the arch’s military purpose or include any adjustments to its design. Tourists are still expected to be able to visit the facility.
“The security features will be fully integrated into the existing design,” Mullin wrote in his declaration submitted Wednesday.
The project’s potential effect on Arlington National Cemetery has divided some veterans groups.
The Post published an analysis Tuesday of how the towering arch’s shadows would move across the graves of veterans and their next of kin from the Vietnam War, the Korean War, World War II, World War I, the Spanish-American War and the Civil War, according to a 3D model.
The symbolism of Trump’s arch overshadowing graves has drawn rebukes from VoteVets, a political organization aligned with Democratic veterans, which launched a campaign last month to mobilize more veterans against the planned 250-foot arch.
However, the Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans for America First and several other veterans organizations filed a brief Wednesday supporting the Trump administration’s position and calling for the arch to be built. The groups also said that the Vietnam War veterans who were suing to stop the project lacked legal standing and did not speak for all veterans.
The White House encouraged the groups to join the brief, according to three people familiar with their plans.
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