Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday that excavation for President Trump’s 250-foot triumphal arch will begin within the next two weeks, pressing forward despite an active lawsuit from veterans and preservationists who say Congress never authorized the monument.
Burgum, 58, revealed the timeline for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck on X, posting digital renderings of the gilded structure planned for Columbia Island, the strip of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The mock-ups depict a white arch with gold trim, topped with the words “ONE NATION UNDER GOD,” a winged Lady Liberty figure holding a torch, and spread-winged golden eagles.
“This will be 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,” Burgum wrote on X.
The project has drawn legal fire from three veterans and an architectural historian represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group. Their lawsuit contends the monument requires congressional approval that was never obtained.
“Congressional authorization is necessary and lacking for this project,” said Nicolas Sansone, an attorney with the group, characterizing the plaintiffs’ core argument.
Sansone said that the coalition is ready to escalate its court fight as bulldozers prepare to move. “We believe that construction cannot and should not proceed apace, and we are prepared to inform the court that it needs to, at this juncture, step in,” he said.
The National Park Service lent institutional support to the arch last month with a 24-page report endorsing the concept. That same document, however, acknowledged the structure would inflict “direct and indirect adverse effects on the sight lines of historic properties” in one of the nation’s most symbolically charged landscapes.
Burgum has mounted an aggressive public defense on X, framing the arch as the fulfillment of a century-old aspiration rather than an administration impulse. He noted that more than 70 world capitals and major cities — Athens, London, Madrid, New Delhi, Paris and Rome among them — already boast triumphal arches.
“Interestingly, Washington, DC, is the only major Western capital without an arch,” he wrote on the platform. “Now after 125 years of waiting, the most powerful capital in the world will be the home of the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all!”
The secretary pointed to decades-old congressional attempts and historical reports discussing memorial construction as evidence the idea predates the current administration.
The arch joins a portfolio of Trump-era building and renaming campaigns that have reshaped federal landmarks in the capital. The administration has already moved to rechristen the Kennedy Center, construct a new White House ballroom, and refurbish the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Columbia Island sits within view of some of Washington’s most visited memorials, making the arch’s scale and placement particularly contentious for preservation advocates who monitor the integrity of the Mall’s carefully planned vistas.
The lawsuit remains pending as excavation equipment prepares to arrive.