Initially, it should be less than 60 feet. Then it increased to 76 feet. Then it shot up to 164 feet and more.
Now the new “Triumph Arch” that President Trump wants to build across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial stands 250 feet from bottom to top — making it the tallest in any capital city in the world.
On Thursday, the US Commission of Fine Arts – a federal agency tasked with reviewing the “design and aesthetics” of all construction in Washington, DC – considered the plans submitted by the president and the US Department of the Interior. Filled with Trump appointees, the panel voted to move forward with the project (as they did with the president’s new 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom).
“This is personal to the president,” Commission Chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. said at the meeting.
The commission also noted that, of the nearly 1,000 public comments submitted before the vote, “100% … were against the project.”
So will the president’s so-called Arch de Trump — official name: United States Triumphal Arch — actually get built? And, if so, when? Here’s everything we know so far.
What is Trump proposing?
According to official architectural renderings unveiled last week, the United States Arc de Triomphe will be 250 feet tall — about 100 feet taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which it looks like.
Like its French counterpart, Trump’s arch will be primarily of stone construction, with various classical elements – lintels, cornices, friezes, parapets – carved from the same material.
Unlike the Arc de Triomphe, the US Triumphal Arch will also glitter with gold – lots of it. Golden lions will flank the stairs on either side of the main structure. Gold medallions will adorn the vault’s treasures. Gold decorations will surround the attic, including the inscriptions “One nation under God” and “Liberty and justice for all.” Three golden statues will top the arch: two eagles and a winged, crowned figure reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty.
An artist’s rendering of President Trump’s proposed arch.
(US Commission on Fine Arts via Reuters)
“The one that people usually recognize is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, and we’re going to top it, I think, a lot,” Trump said in December. “They just have history.”
According to the New York Times, architect Nicolas Leo Charbonneau’s winning design won the president’s attention “because of its ornateness,” beating out a “smaller, less decorative” proposal. After returning to the White House last January, Trump has also ‘golden’ the Oval Office.
When a CBS reporter asked Trump last year who the monument was for, he pointed to himself and replied: “Me.”
“It will be beautiful,” he added.
The US Triumphal Arch will be built on Memorial Circle, a grassy roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery directly across the Arlington Memorial Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial.
How do other triumphal arches compare in size?
According to the Times, “Ancient civilizations often built grand arches to commemorate their military or civic achievements. The Romans decorated their cities with arches to celebrate imperial victories, such as the sacking of Jerusalem. The French originally commissioned the Arc de Triomphe to symbolize Napoleon’s military victories.”
In recent decades, however, a handful of countries have built victory pylons, including Indonesia, North Korea, and Iraq. Still, Washington remains “the only major Western capital without a Memorial Arch,” according to a 2025 article by Catesby Leigh, an architecture critic who encouraged Trump to erect one of his own.
If built as planned, the US Triumphal Arch would replace Mexico City’s 220-foot Monument to the Revolution as the largest structure of its kind. Pyongyang’s 197-foot Arch of Triumph will drop to third place.
The 250-foot measurement was also chosen to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which the United States is celebrating this summer. In comparison, the Lincoln Memorial is 99 feet tall; The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.
Leigh originally proposed a temporary structure over 60 feet tall that could be built in time for this summer’s festival. “And if the Ark is considered of lasting value in its design, it can be permanently rebuilt,” Leigh told the Times.
But the proposal later grew to 76 feet to symbolize America’s founding year — before Trump insisted on the 164-foot Arc de Triomphe.
At Thursday’s Fine Arts Commission meeting, Vice Chairman James C. McCreary II — who was also the original architect of Trump’s ballroom — objected to the statues at the top of the arch.
“I wonder if you need them there,” McCreary asked. Without the statues, the height of the structure would shrink to about 166 feet.
When will the arch be made?
There’s no way the United States will have enough time to build a large classical arch before this year’s big Fourth of July celebrations. Instead, the administration hopes to “break ground on the site this summer with construction completed before the end of Mr. Trump’s term,” according to the Times.
A rendering of this summer’s “Great American State Fair” released Thursday by the Freedom 250 organization, which is planning a “presidential-level celebration for our nation’s 250th birthday,” shows a smaller, possibly temporary, version of the design on one side of the National Mall.
How much will it cost (and who will pay)?
The administration has not released a budget or even a cost estimate for its arch.
As in his White House ballroom, Trump has suggested that donors could pay for the project. But the latest National Endowment for the Arts “spending plan” shows that taxpayers are set to chip in $2 million in special funds and up to $13 million to match any private donations.
A White House official told the Times that “the cost of the Ark is still being calculated but it will likely be paid for with a mix of public and private money.”
what’s next Are there any obstacles ahead?
The White House says the US will “comply with all legal requirements” to build the Arc de Triomphe. After Thursday’s approval by the Fine Arts Commission, the proposal is expected to go to the National Capital Planning Commission (the federal government’s central planning agency for the Washington, DC, area).
But whether the plans make it to Congress is another story. In October, Trump abruptly demolished the east wing of the White House to make room for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom financed by at least $350 million from corporate donors and political allies. A federal judge has blocked that project several times — including again Thursday — because he says it’s more than the president can change about a historic building like the White House without congressional approval.
In February, a group of Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian also filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s Arch project, arguing that “Congressional approval is required for the construction of symbolic and monumental works in the nation’s capital” and that “a host of other laws impose procedural requirements that must be satisfied. They also claim that Trump’s Arch would obstruct the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.”
According to CNN, the US Triumphal Arch will soon face other more challenging reviews requiring public input under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
As part of those reviews, “stakeholders including Arlington National Cemetery, the National Park Service and the DC State Historic Preservation Office are expected to be consulted,” CNN reported.
What supporters and critics say
It will be “the largest and most beautiful Triumphal Arch anywhere in the world. It will be a wonderful addition to the Washington DC area for all Americans to enjoy for decades to come!” -Trump, on social media
It “will be an architectural masterpiece to celebrate our history here in Washington, DC… Great nations build beautiful structures that cultivate national pride and love of country, and this triumphal arch should be a project that all Americans of all political persuasions can support.” – Carolyn Levitt, White House Press Secretary
“The cemetery is supposed to be talking. This arch is just a rude obstruction. Whatever you think of it aesthetically, it’s the wrong place for it.” -Calder Loth, the architectural historian who is suing to stop the project
“It’s too big for the site.” – Catesby Leigh, the architectural critic who initially encouraged Trump to build the Arch
It “would be profoundly out of proportion with its surroundings” and “seems to ignore the established norms that prioritize harmony with existing structures, preservation of sight lines and respect for the symbolic hierarchy of capitals and landmarks”. – An anonymous public comment was read aloud at Thursday’s Fine Arts Commission meeting
“Allowing the construction of the Arch without appropriate congressional authorization and review could lead to the uncontrolled proliferation of monuments, erosion of public space, and serious disruptions to the ability of future generations to commemorate their own losses and achievements. … Washington DC is not the place to look as the renovation, re-landscape, and construction behind the President’s House.” – Democratic members of Congress filed in March amicus briefs in support of suit to stop construction
