Trump Arch Excavation Begins Within Two Weeks

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that excavation work for President Trump's 250-foot "Great Triumphal Arch" will begin within two weeks at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

"We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck," Burgum said in a statement.

The announcement lands while a federal lawsuit seeking to block the monument is still live in Washington — and while the plaintiffs are asking a judge to halt the project before anyone breaks ground.

What Is Being Built

The arch stands 250 feet tall (76 meters), according to the Associated Press, on land that is National Park Service territory across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.

Renderings Burgum posted on X show a white arch with gold detail stamped with "ONE NATION UNDER GOD," topped by a Lady Liberty-like gold figure with wings and a torch, flanked by gold eagles with their wings spread, the AP reported.

Burgum called it "one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World."

The Court Fight

The core dispute is whether the president can put a monument on Park Service land without Congress.

"Congressional authorization is necessary and lacking for this project," said Nicolas Sansone, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group representing the plaintiffs, in comments to the AP.

Justice Department lawyers told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday that the veterans lack standing, pointing to the Supreme Court's decision letting White House East Wing ballroom construction continue. Just as the National Trust for Historic Preservation "could not establish standing based on a 'desire to view'" the White House, DOJ argued, these plaintiffs "cannot establish standing based on desires to view Arlington House or the Lincoln Memorial."

"Plaintiffs' distaste for the perceived symbolism of the proposed arch does not establish a concrete and particularized injury," the filing said, according to the Washington Examiner.

The veterans' lawyers told the court Wednesday that their clients "acted properly in bringing suit promptly following Defendants' announcement of their plan to build an unauthorized monument" — drawing a contrast with the ballroom case, which was filed after the administration had already broken ground. They argue "entry of an injunction that stops Defendants' unlawful project before they break ground is the appropriate form of relief."