President Trump plans to begin construction on his “Triumphal Arch” near the Lincoln Memorial within the next two months, he said on Wednesday.
The president first teased the notion in October, brandishing a miniature Parisian Arc de Triomphe-style model at a ballroom-donors dinner, with a promise it would eclipse his ballroom in popularity as a show of strength and might. The arch will sit in the center of a roundabout leading to the Arlington Memorial Bridge, across the Potomac River from Arlington National Cemetery.
“[Construction] hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months,” Trump told Politico on Wednesday from Mar-a-Lago. “It’ll be great. Everyone loves it. They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”
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US President Donald Trump holds models with different sizes for a proposed “Independence Arch” as he speaks during a dinner with ballroom donors in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on October 15, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Unlike Trump’s ego-driven project, dubbed the “Arc de Trump,” the architectural marvel he has compared it to honors the Frenchmen killed during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Trump would like to see his version erected in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.
The arch is one of several changes Trump has wrought to the Washington architectural landscape, radiating outward from the White House. At the home base, he has paved over the once-paradisiacal Rose Garden to host political supporters and business elites, razed the White House’s East Wing to build his $400 million, privately funded ballroom — after promising it would not “interfere with the current building” — and slathered gold throughout the Oval Office and the Lincoln Bathroom.
The president is no stranger to architectural landscape alterations. Decades ago, a then-33-year-old Trump tore down the iconic Bonwit Teller building at Fifth Ave. and 59th St. in New York City to make way for his Trump Tower. Along the way, he destroyed and discarded significant Art Deco artworks he had promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
With News Wire Services
