President Donald Trump hopes to win approval Thursday for his planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, which he calls a necessary addition to Washington. He may end the day with work finally underway — or blocked by a federal judge.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump has stocked with allies, on Thursday afternoon will review final plans for the arch, proposed near Arlington National Cemetery. The commission is expected to approve the project — after extensive public testimony and debate — and administration officials say they could begin construction immediately.
The project’s opponents have beseeched U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to stop work before it starts. “The Court should not allow this lawless project to evade scrutiny,” Brian Schwalb and Jay Jones, the attorneys general for D.C. and Virginia, wrote in a joint court filing Wednesday.
Trump has spent more than a year touting plans for the arch, which he says is needed to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary. The monument would rise in Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout tucked inside Washington’s boundaries. Congress has not authorized the project, and opponents argue it would violate multiple federal laws, overwhelm the site and wrongly overshadow the national military cemetery.
The Trump administration says building the arch will complete a century-old vision for the site that Congress had authorized. The president extolled the arch again Wednesday while touring another of his projects, a new White House ballroom, and touted his continued efforts to remake Washington.
The triumphal arch is “like the Arc de Triomphe, but better, more beautiful actually, much more beautiful,” the president told reporters at the White House, invoking the Parisian arch that inspired his own.
More than 120 people have signed up to testify at Thursday’s National Capital Planning Commission hearing. The planned speakers include at least four lawmakers who are split on whether the arch should be approved, several Vietnam War veterans who say it would harm their experience of visiting the military cemetery, and local advocacy groups who have urged Trump to stop the project.
Mark Paoletta, a White House official who chairs the commission, has said that he plans to approve the project. Six of the panel’s 12 seats are controlled by Trump, and two more are held by his GOP congressional allies who have swiftly approved the president’s past projects.
Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman (California) and Don Beyer (Virginia) are set to testify against the arch on Thursday, their offices confirmed.
GOP Reps. Andrew Clyde (Georgia) and Brian Mast (Florida) also are registered to speak, according to a list posted by the commission. Both men are military veterans, and the Trump administration has sought to argue that the arch would honor veterans rather than impose on the cemetery.
Chutkan, who is weighing two lawsuits against the arch, has ordered the Trump administration to provide immediate updates about the project’s status and construction plans. She has also voiced skepticism of Trump’s national security arguments for the project, saying officials have failed to provide evidence for that purpose and suggesting that the administration should not invoke national security as a “talismanic” justification for controversial projects.
“What is the harm of waiting?” Chutkan asked a DOJ official last Friday, as she heard dueling arguments from the administration and lawyers for Vietnam veterans and a historic preservationist. “What is the rush to put this arch up?”
The D.C. government and state of Virginia sued the next day, contending that the project would impede traffic, interfere with emergency evacuation planning and cause other local disruptions. Trump officials have argued that the alleged harms are too speculative and that the challenge should be thrown out.
The Trump administration has closely guarded its plans for some of Trump’s projects, and has declined to release the names of contractors teed up to work on the arch or how it will be paid for.
A vehicle bearing the logo of a division of Grunley Construction, a local firm that has worked on the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building and other government buildings, was seen at the site on Tuesday according to a photograph posted by independent journalist Andrew Leyden.
A vehicle from a 3D mapping and survey company was parked next to the memorial arch circle this morning. I’m sure if he was working or just lost pic.twitter.com/CazBDMgmwI
— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) November 3, 2026
The Interior Department, which is managing the arch project, and Grunley Construction did not respond to requests for comment about whether the company is involved in the project. The Justice Department late Wednesday night said in a court filing that Grunley Construction “may be — but is not necessarily” preparing for work on the project.
Trump officials have told Chutkan that contractors are prepared to fence off Memorial Circle and begin staging supplies nearby as soon as the arch is approved by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Interior Department formally authorizes the project shortly afterward.
D.C. and Virginia leaders say work should be paused now.
“The District and Virginia are plainly harmed by the construction of a massive Arch that will clog traffic on a major thoroughfare, undermine emergency preparedness, inflict environmental damage, and subvert the region’s historic plan,” Schwalb and Jones wrote in their filing. “Those irreparable injuries will begin to accrue the moment construction begins.”
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