Trump to break ground on big arch in D.C. within months, he tells Politico
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that construction on a new Paris-style, triumphal arch in Washington, is expected to begin “sometime in the next two months.”
The president has long hinted at plans for the new, permanent monument as part of the administration’s commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026.
“It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,” Trump told Politico in a phone interview from his Palm Beach estate. “They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”
The former real estate developer has spent the last year remaking the capital city in his signature style, including paving over the White House Rose Garden and redesigning it to look like his Mar-a-Lago patio, adding gilded accents to the Oval Office and demolishing the East Wing to make room for an expansive ballroom.
In recent months, Trump has displayed renderings of the proposed arch in the Oval Office, which is loosely based on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and is expected to be erected across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
“Every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, they literally say something is supposed be here. We have versions of it…This is a mock-up,” Trump told donors for his ballroom at an October dinner, referring to a grassy area at the end of the bridge.
More recently, the president raised eyebrows when the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, whose members were selected by Trump, voted to add his name to the building’s exterior. Legal experts say Congress must approve an official name change but the president’s name was added to the building’s facade the next day.
Trump took control of the Kennedy Center in February, removing members he did not appoint and replacing them with allies. The institution has since struggled with ticket sales and several acts have since canceled performances, including the jazz ensemble The Cookers, who were scheduled to perform on New Year’s Eve.
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