Veterans File Lawsuit to Halt Trump’s 250-Foot Arch Proposal
Cars drive over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, near where President Trump has proposed building an arch, on Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Three Vietnam War veterans who later served as U.S. diplomats, along with a historic preservationist, filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to stop the Trump administration from building a proposed 250-foot “triumphal arch” in Washington, D.C., just west of the Potomac River.
The suit argues that President Trump’s planned monument — which he wants finished in time for this year’s U.S. semiquincentennial — would intrude on views from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia toward the Lincoln Memorial and disrupt the historic arrangement of the capital’s central memorials, according to the Washington Post.
Filed in federal court in Washington by the watchdog group Public Citizen, the complaint alleges the administration is pushing ahead without congressional approval or required federal review. It says no formal proposal has yet been submitted to the relevant oversight bodies.
The plaintiffs contend the arch would damage carefully designed sight lines along Memorial Avenue, weaken the symbolic link between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington House, and Arlington Memorial Bridge, and “dishonor” the cemetery’s significance for visitors and future burials.
A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 52% of U.S. adults oppose the project, while 21% support it. President Trump said in late December that construction would begin within two months.
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