{"id":985,"date":"2026-05-20T21:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=985"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:09:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:09:31","slug":"trump-officials-say-they-can-build-250-foot-arch-without-congresss-okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=985","title":{"rendered":"Trump officials say they can build 250-foot arch without Congress\u2019s okay"},"content":{"rendered":"

To build a triumphal arch near Arlington Cemetery, the administration hopes to rely on a 100-year-old authorization for a different project on the site.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Oregon files lawsuit seeking $10,000 from former player who transferred to Oklahoma<\/a><\/p>\n

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Workers take measurements on May 15 at Memorial Circle, the proposed site for President Donald Trump\u2019s triumphal arch. (Kylie Cooper\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Trump administration does not plan to seek approval from Congress for President Donald Trump\u2019s planned 250-foot arch<\/a>, arguing that they do not need it because lawmakers a century ago authorized a somewhat similar project that was never built.<\/p>\n

Trump has targeted Memorial Circle \u2014 a traffic roundabout on Columbia Island, a man-made island tucked inside the edge of Washington \u2014 for his planned arch. Teams of workers conducting surveys and geophysical testing began work at the site last week.<\/p>\n

The administration has also begun the process of seeking approvals from a pair of federal arts and building commissions that Trump has stacked<\/a> with his allies<\/a>, with another hearing slated for Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

But under federal law, certain parts of the city \u2014 including Memorial Circle, which is managed by the National Park Service \u2014 are considered protected land, and monuments built there require congressional authorization.<\/p>\n

White House and agency officials have repeatedly declined to answer whether they will seek authorization for Trump\u2019s arch from the current Congress. Two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the administration\u2019s plans, said there are no active plans to do so.<\/p>\n

Instead, administration officials have cited a 1924 report<\/a> by a federal commission charged with designing the Arlington Memorial Bridge. That report called for building a pair of 166-foot-tall columns, surmounted by statues, on Columbia Island that would frame the nearby Lincoln Memorial.<\/p>\n

Congress formally ratified the commission\u2019s report in 1925, and the Memorial Bridge was soon built. However, the columns were not constructed, and Trump officials today argue that in building the arch they would be carrying out past lawmakers\u2019 wishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress authorized the arch project when it approved the design set out in Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission\u2019s report,\u201d Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing last month.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has made similar arguments, including at a meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump believes that this year\u2019s celebration of 250 years of American independence is the perfect moment to finally realize this long-standing, over-century-old vision, but yet unfilled vision for Columbia Island,\u201d Burgum said as he encouraged the Trump-appointed arts commissioners to support the project.<\/p>\n

Burgum also said the administration\u2019s new proposal is \u201cbuilding on\u201d the 166-foot-tall columns conceived a century ago, noting that the columns for Trump\u2019s planned arch would also be 166 feet tall. But they would be topped by an additional 84 feet of pedestal and statuary to bring the arch\u2019s total height to 250 feet.<\/p>

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The administration\u2019s argument has been panned by lawyers suing to halt the project, outside experts and Democratic members of Congress who say it defies precedent and is an attempted work-around of federal law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion Congress a century ago authorized construction of this 250-foot arch in Memorial Circle is absurd,\u201d said Wendy Liu, a lawyer at Public Citizen Litigation Group. The firm, the litigating arm of nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen, is representing military veterans and an architectural historian who are challenging the project<\/a> because it would alter the views between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n

The authorization was \u201cfor a now-defunct commission to design and construct Arlington Memorial Bridge, which was completed a century ago, pursuant to a 10-year construction and funding schedule,\u201d Liu added. \u201cIt did not authorize this arch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees national parks, has said that the administration was obligated to seek congressional approval for the arch. In an interview on Wednesday, he drew comparisons to Trump\u2019s decision to tear down the White House\u2019s East Wing and begin resurfacing the Lincoln Memorial\u2019s reflecting pool without congressional authorization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is their playbook,\u201d Huffman said. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re trotting out this tortured argument that a 100-year-old authorization for something totally different satisfies a law today is laughable, but consistent with their pattern of ignoring Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huffman is among several top Democrats on committees overseeing federal lands and resources who have joined the legal challenge to the arch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled last month that Trump must halt<\/a> much of the construction on his planned ballroom until the project is explicitly authorized by Congress. An appeals court stayed Leon\u2019s order and is set to hear arguments in the ballroom case on June 5. The Trump administration has said the ballroom and arch projects are not analogous, in part because the ballroom construction had already begun whereas the arch has yet to break ground.<\/p>\n

The administration has said it will provide at least 14 days notice before beginning construction of the arch. The administration had also considered beginning work at the site by piggybacking on <\/b>an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, emails obtained by The Washington Post<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

The fine-arts commission is scheduled to review a revised proposal<\/a> for the arch on Thursday. The administration and its architects have made some changes after receiving feedback from the commission last month \u2014 including removing a planned base and four golden lions flanking the structure \u2014 but <\/b>the proposed arch remains 250 feet tall.<\/p>\n

Sarah Blaskey, Jonathan O\u2019Connell, Olivia George and Jonathan Edwards contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>

Read more At Coast Guard commencement, Trump tells grads to lead \u2018national resurgence\u2019<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The administration say they are building on a project authorized by Congress a century ago. 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