The scene on Tuesday afternoon in Washington D.C.’s Memorial Circle was serene: cars driving around the loop and planes flying overhead, but otherwise quiet.
If President Doanld Trump gets his way, that could soon change.
Late last week, senior Trump administration officials announced plans to begin construction on the Triumphal Arch, a towering 250-foot memorial the president seeks to build midway between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
News of the imminent construction came as a surprise to many; the project hasn’t yet received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal government’s central planning agency for the D.C. area, meanwhile a lawsuit seeking to block the arch is still working through the courts.
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In a legal declaration filed Friday by a National Parks Service official, Burgum’s agency clarified his earlier announcement: the work set to begin imminently wasn’t actually construction of the arch, but rather “Phase 1B subsurface geomorphological and archaeological testing” — something mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act and other laws governing such projects.
That testing wasn’t scheduled to begin until Sept. 21 at the earliest, the declaration added.
Even still, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the administration to “provide the court with 48 hours' notice before engaging in any activity on Memorial Circle other than on-site information gathering,” going on to remind officials that “any construction or demolition in preparation for construction” before officials take steps to authorize the construction would violate a previous court order.
In a separate move Tuesday, a coalition of veterans’ groups and others opposed to the arch project launched an expanded effort to block it — not in a court of law, but in one of public opinion.
Progressive veterans’ organization VoteVets, political advocacy group Home of the Brave and D.C. nonprofit The Cultural Landscape Foundation announced a social video campaign urging Americans to speak out against the arch.
“Behind me is Arlington National Cemetery, where thousands of great Americans have their final rest. One of them is my father, killed in action over the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night on 12 January 1969,” begins Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a retired Army general and VoteVets adviser.
“What the Trump administration proposes is to plant a 250-foot-tall arch right here to break the sight line between the Lincoln Memorial and the cemetery, which is entirely inappropriate and borders on sacrilege to the men and women buried behind me.”
Karen Meredith, whose son was killed in the Iraq War, echoed such sentiments.
“This proposal by this administration doesn’t bear well with me,” Meredith says in the video. “There will be an observation deck. We don’t need tourists overlooking funerals. I’m just appalled.”
An official working with the groups behind the video said no paid advertising was currently planned for it, as officials hoped the messages would spread organically. But he didn’t rule out purchasing air time to showcase the spot more widely, if enough donations came in.
Asked about the veterans’ criticisms, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Scripps News in a statement the arch “will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes.”
A White House official separately said no construction on the arch requiring approval would begin until the project was officially green-lit.
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At the site of the proposed construction Tuesday, meanwhile, some longtime D.C.-area residents were gearing up for a protracted fight.
Susan Douglas, who’s lived in the area since the late 1960s and volunteers with the activist group Third Act DMV, told Scripps News she’s been visiting the site almost daily since officials said construction was imminent.
“This is sort of my backyard. I'm here a lot,” she noted. “I am in a military family, and I have the utmost respect for what that cemetery symbolizes. And I feel that the arch, apart from being ghastly, gaudy, and way too large for this space, I think it's going to desecrate the area.”
Douglas’s group has already spoken out repeatedly against the project — through rallies, vigils and campaigns urging Americans across the country to urge lawmakers in Congress to block the project.
Another local activist who asked not to be identified said if all else failed, she was prepared to lay down on the grass and try to physically block any construction — welcoming the prospect of arrest.
“We will be out here in the future,” Douglas added. “We have more planned.”
