Submit Your Public Comment on Trump's Arch
According to new documents and plans posted on the National Parks official website, Donald Trump is moving forward on his own grotesque monument, but now is the time to make your voice heard.
According to National Park Service documents posted earlier this month, the Trump administration is quickly moving forward on the 250-foot-tall triumphal arch meant to fete a king, as officials lay more groundwork to begin actual construction on the grotesque plan, sharing additional documents that reveal an aggressive schedule meant to finish work before Trump’s term ends.
With the latest round of published plans, the administration envisions 20 hours of construction per day on the arch year-round to complete the project before the end of Trump’s last term. Construction experts say that the timeline — which would involve two 10-hour daily shifts — is unusually aggressive for a nonemergency project.
After spending last week touring Washington, DC, with family, I can tell you that the funding cuts to the National Park Service are on full display. The Jefferson Memorial was practically unattended, with garbage strewn all about, and the World War II Memorial had several burnt-out lights throughout the display. The White House, which is completely obscured from the front by giant fences meant to keep out the very people who fund the place.
You can almost always see the back of the White House from a distance on Constitution is completely barricaded and blocked for Trump’s massive UFC fight night on the South Lawn, planned for his birthday. Now, all that is visible from this once majestic view of pure Americana, is a string of rented toilets and stage scaffolding that could choke the Empire State Building. Add to that National Guard Services Members who stand around in useless packs of four, talking in large clusters like it’s lunchtime at Trump High, and the cost of this Trump arch becomes maddening.
Luckily, the public comment section of the proposal online is officially open until June 15, 2026, so you can voice your opinion and read others, most of which are incredibly negative. You can read the other public comments on the Trump Arch here.
If you are tempted to think this is a waste of time, I will remind you of our wonderful work trolling the Trump administration’s IRS slush fund for fascists, which I know led to the decision for the Trump administration to abandon the plan due to public backlash.
Here are some key facts for you to ponder before you make your comment:
🏛️At 250-feet-tall (76-meters), this new monument would be the world’s largest arch, which would be taller than the two largest triumphal arches in the world: one in Pyongyang, North Korea, and the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.
🏛️The arch design, which has already gotten early approval from the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all appointed by Donald Trump, will drastically alter the city, obscuring the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery.
🏛️The two federal panels meant to oversee these projects are both controlled by Trump, and his allies have rushed the project through reviews without the proper review or approval.
🏛️Congress has not authorized the construction of a memorial arch on the proposed site, which is a critical first step required by statute before the government can move forward to construct a memorial on that land, and proceeding with the construction of the arch would be unlawful.
🏛️Using taxpayer funding, Donald Trump has already demolished the White House East Wing, decided unilaterally to renovate the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool at great expense, and undertaken other construction projects without going through the usual legally required reviews or seeking approval from Congress.
🏛️The Park Service said the project would require large cranes, including one that may be 320 feet tall and another that could be as high as 300 feet. The planned site for the arch is on a flight path to nearby Reagan National Airport, where planes sometimes fly at around 500 feet, raising major safety concerns.
🏛️ To rush the project’s completion, the arch will be clad in concrete with granite, unlike the nearby Lincoln Memorial and other monuments, which were constructed with natural stone like marble and limestone.
These are just a few key reasons why construction of Trump’s arch should be halted, but it won’t happen without massive public pressure. Click on the form below to submit your comments on Trump’s Triumphant Arch, as you only have five more days to put your name and opinion on public record officially opposing this egregious abuse of power and misappropriation of tax dollars.
Let’s do our part to overwhelm the public comments section and make logical and legal arguments as to why this construction should be halted immediately. Be sure to share this across all your socials as well, so we can make that number of comments tick upward to high, forcing the Trump administration to face the massive public backlash before Trump officials can really move on to any construction in the District.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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