WASHINGTON — During his first term, President Donald Trump visited the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to attend a commemoration of Armistice Day, which ended World War I. The memory of the arch stayed with him, and eight years later, he is determined to surpass it.
“The one that people know mostly is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, and we’re going to top it by, I think, a lot,” Trump said in December of his plans to build his own triumphal arch in Washington. “The only thing they have is history.”
The Commission of Fine Arts, which is filled with Trump’s appointees, is scheduled on Thursday to consider Trump’s plan to build a 250-foot arch on the other side of the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
But Trump’s push to build the giant arch — more than quadrupling its size from original plans — has alienated early proponents of the project, classical architects and veterans groups who say it will diminish nearby Arlington Cemetery.
It has even alarmed Catesby Leigh, an architecture critic who encouraged Trump to build a triumphal arch, most recently in a 2025 article in The American Mind, an online magazine of the Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank.
“Washington is the only major Western capital without a monumental arch,” Leigh wrote. He cautioned that the arch need not be “huge” and should stand no taller than 60 feet.
But that was before the idea made its way to Trump, who has rarely met a project he didn’t think should be bigger.
At first the arch proposal grew modestly, to 76 feet, to symbolize the year of America’s founding: 1776. But soon enough, Trump was insisting his arch be taller than the Arc de Triomphe, which stands roughly 164 feet tall. Eventually, the president settled on the idea that the arch should rise to 250 feet, to celebrate America’s 250 years, making it what is believed to be the tallest triumphal arch in any of the world’s capital cities.
Some classical architecture proponents, including Leigh, were surprised by the scale.
“I was proposing a celebratory project,” Leigh said. “An arch of not titanic dimensions; an arch that could be built by July 4, 2026. And if the arch were considered to be of enduring value in its design, then it could be rebuilt in permanent form.”
“It’s way too big for that site,” Leigh added, referring to the grassy roundabout that sits near Arlington Cemetery.
Ancient civilizations often built grand arches to commemorate their military or civic achievements. The Romans decorated their cities with arches to celebrate imperial conquests like the sacking of Jerusalem. The French originally commissioned the Arc de Triomphe to symbolize Napoleon’s military victories.
But when a CBS reporter asked Trump last year whom the monument was for, he pointed to himself and answered: “Me.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that the arch would celebrate “the enduring triumph of the American spirit.”
“Great nations build beautiful structures that cultivate national pride and love of country,” she said, “and this triumphal arc should be a project that all Americans of all political persuasions can support.”
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