Commission packed with Trump allies approves towering triumphal arch in DC

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A federal arts commission Thursday voted to approve designs for President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch, advancing the project amid public opposition and some confusion on the panel.

Thursday’s vote by the Commission of Fine Arts, whose job is to vet the design of monuments and other major projects in the capital, represents a key approval as the White House seeks to begin construction. Another panel that oversees federal construction projects, the National Capital Planning Commission, is set to review the proposed design for the arch June 4.

Trump has packed both panels with allies, putting his executive assistant and other political appointees on the fine-arts commission and installing his staff secretary as leader of the planning commission.

He personally rejected suggestions to lower the height of the proposed arch by more than 80 feet, the project’s main architect told the arts commission Thursday.

Trump has eyed Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, for the structure, which he says will be the largest triumphal arch in the world and is intended to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary.

Arts commissioners Thursday praised the arch’s proposed design, calling it a fitting addition to the capital’s monumental core. The arch would be built on land controlled by the National Park Service that sits at the Virginia end of the Memorial Bridge but is inside Washington‘s boundaries.

“This is a very elegant building,” said Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the fine-arts commission’s chairman and a longtime proponent of constructing an arch in Memorial Circle. Cook and other commissioners said they wanted to see more details on potential sculptures added to the arch before voting 4-0 to approve the project.

It was just enough to maintain a quorum for the seven-member commission. Two commissioners, Roger Kimball and Matthew Taylor, did not attend the meeting. As the panel began considering approval of the arch, commissioner Mary Anne Carter encouraged project planners to limit adornments to match the solemnity of Arlington National Cemetery next door.

“On one side really is hallowed ground,” Carter said, adding: “As you move forward, just keep in mind how simple those gravestones are.”

Carter did not return from a break about an hour later and did not vote on the project.

The commissioners spent several minutes seeking to clarify whether they were issuing final approval of the project, based on the renderings. Typically the commission would have held at least one more hearing to review additional documents and details about the project once it was further along.

“This is a final approval that I’m exercising as chairman,” Cook ultimately said.

Trump, informed by a reporter of the commission’s vote during a news conference in the Oval Office, hailed the development.

“I finally get good news,” the president said, adding that he doesn’t believe Congress needs to approve the project because it’s on federal parkland.

“We don’t need anything from Congress,” he said.

Members of the public and historical preservationists said the proposed structure is too large and warned it would tower over the nearby cemetery, reshape the historical relationship between the Lincoln Memorial and the military cemetery, and obstruct pedestrians’ views.

“The arch, as proposed, would dominate the National Cemetery and would be inconsistent with its solemn and hallowed character,” Elizabeth Merritt, a lawyer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told the commission.

Outside experts also criticized the commission’s process, noting that reviews of major projects traditionally stretched months or years and involved more intense feedback from the commission’s experts – a precedent broken by the arts commission’s speedy approval in February of Trump’s planned White House ballroom.

The fine-arts commission received about 1,600 public comments on the planned arch ahead of Thursday’s hearing, with more than “99.5 percent” of them opposed to the project, according to a staff review presented by the commission’s secretary.

The planned 250-foot arch represents Trump’s most significant effort to remake D.C.’s skyline as he works to transform the city in his second term.

The president’s project has also been opposed by some military veterans and an architectural historian, who say that a towering structure in Memorial Circle would harm views of the cemetery. They have sued to prevent its construction. Democrats have said that any new monument must obtain authorization from Congress.

Trump officials have argued that they do not need congressional approval because Congress more than a century ago authorized a somewhat similar structure in the same site.

The fine-arts commission last month approved early designs for the arch but encouraged Nicolas Charbonneau, an architect at the firm Harrison Design who is leading the project, to make some revisions. Charbonneau said Thursday that his team had scrapped a planned platform for the arch, removed some planned adornments and abandoned the idea of an underground tunnel to access the site.

Charbonneau presented a revised design that would overhaul pedestrian routes around the traffic circle.

But Charbonneau said Trump rejected a recommendation by arts commissioner James C. McCrery II – who served as the first architect for Trump’s planned White House ballroom before wrangling with the president over its size – to remove three golden statues atop the arch that add more than 80 feet to its height. Removing those statues would have shrunk the arch’s height from 250 feet tall to 166 feet.

“The president considered the commission’s suggestion to look at the arch without the sculptural figures on the roof but elected not to pursue such an option,” Charbonneau said.

Dan Diamond is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, with a focus on policy, public health and President Trump’s transformation of Washington.

Jonathan Edwards is an arts and government reporter covering how the Trump administration is influencing cultural institutions — including the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian museums, the Library of Congress and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities — and how those shifts ripple through the arts, public life and national identity.