Donald Trump’s team maintains that the president does not need Congress to approve his plans for a towering 250-foot arch in Washington, D.C., because a similar proposal was already given the go-ahead — more than 100 years ago.
The arch is one of many so-called “beautification” projects Trump is undertaking to leave his permanent mark on the capital, despite overwhelming disapproval from the public.
While the design of the massive arch — which the president and his White House have taken to calling the “Arch de Trump,” in a nod to France’s Arc de Triomphe — was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts Thursday, whose members were all appointed by Trump, the land on which it would sit is protected under federal law and is therefore subject to congressional authorization.
Two officials told The Washington Post, however, that there are “no active plans” to seek authorization from Congress, and instead cited a report for the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission that signed off on similar plans in 1925.
The proposal called for a pair of 166-foot columns that would frame the Lincoln Memorial, but they were never constructed. “Congress authorized the arch project when it approved the design set out in Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission’s report,” lawyers for the Justice Department wrote in a filing last month, The Post reports.
Trump said he does not require Congressional approval for the arch because the land “is owned by the Interior Department,” and claimed the arch was “meant to be built for many years.”
“We don't need anything from Congress,” Trump said Thursday, speaking from the Oval Office. “We don't have a triumphal arc, so it was meant to be built for many years,” the president added.
Critics blasted the justification of the 1925 report as “laughable” and “absurd.”
“The notion Congress a century ago authorized construction of this 250-foot arch in Memorial Circle is absurd,” Wendy Liu, a lawyer at Public Citizen Litigation Group, told the newspaper.
The group is representing military Veterans in a lawsuit against the project, arguing that the arch would block the “historically significant view” between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
Liu said the report cited by Trump officials was for a “now-defunct commission to design and construct Arlington Memorial Bridge,” adding that the group “did not authorize this arch.”
“The fact that they’re trotting out this tortured argument that a 100-year-old authorization for something totally different satisfies a law today is laughable, but consistent with their pattern of ignoring Congress,” added Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California.
Trump has also demolished the historic East Wing to make way for his $400 million ballroom and started resurfacing work on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool without congressional approval.
Democrats, including Huffman, have joined the effort to challenge Trump’s “vanity projects” in court and have called for an oversight hearing.
“The breathtaking scope of these changes to iconic structures and spaces in our nation’s capital – changes that will transform the experience of visiting and using the capital for generations to come – demands at least a hearing by the Committee,” Democrats wrote.
Preliminary surveys and testing of the site began last week.
