Design plan for 250-foot ‘Trump Arch’ approved, but base’s 4 lions now gone

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday approved plans for the triumphal arch that President Donald Trump wants to build at the entrance to the nation’s capital, a key step in the project process.

The commissioners, all appointed by Mr. Trump, acted despite overwhelming public opposition to the 250-foot arch, one of several projects Trump is pursuing alongside a White House ballroom to leave his mark on Washington.

“The building is beautiful,” commission Chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr. said shortly before the vote on a project that was slightly revised from the one presented to the federal agency in April.

The arch would measure 250 feet high from its base to a torch held aloft by a figure resembling Lady Liberty at the top of the structure. The statue is said to be flanked by two golden eagles, but the four lions believed to guard the base have now disappeared. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” would be inscribed in gold letters on each side of the monument.

Rendering of Trump’s triumphal arch that would stand between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery, submitted by the Department of the Interior to the Commission of Fine Arts, April 16, 2026.

A public observation deck at the top would provide 360-degree views of the surrounding area.

The commission’s vice chairman, architect James McCrery II, said in April that he preferred the arch without the figures at the top, which would have reduced the height of the arch by about 80 feet. Critics of the project argue that the arch would dominate the skyline and disrupt the view from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery.

At 250 feet, the arch would be significantly taller than the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial, which sits on the other side of the Memorial Bridge. The Washington Monument is 150 meters tall.

Commissioners were told at Thursday’s meeting that Mr. Trump had considered the suggestion of removing the statue at the summit “but chose not to pursue such an option.”

A rendering of President Trump’s proposed Independence Arch.

McCrery recommended removing the lions on the base and opposed the proposed underground tunnel allowing pedestrian access to the arch, which would be built on a traffic circle. Both design elements have been removed.

Preliminary studies and testing of the site began last week.

A veterans group and a historian sued the Trump administration in federal court to block construction on the grounds that the arch would disrupt the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery, among other reasons. For the moment, the judge has not yet intervened.

The commission received approximately 1,000 public comments. CFA Secretary Thomas Luebke said “100% of the comments were against the project”, reading one comment criticizing the scale of the arch. He said the arch would “assert itself as a dominant vertical element in a skyline that has resisted such intrusions.”

The Republican president and his Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, said Washington was the only major Western capital not to have such an arch. Burgum’s department includes the National Park Service, which manages the land where Mr. Trump wants to install the arch.

In a message published in Truth Social last month, the president said “it will be the BIGGEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Arc de Triomphe in the world.”

The president said some of his other projects, like adding a blue coating inside the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, will beautify the city in time for the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Trump’s rehabilitation of the Reflecting Pool is also the subject of a legal challenge brought by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, which said the administration’s actions to repaint the bottom of the Reflecting Pool blue without first undergoing proper reviews ran afoul of federal preservation laws governing historic sites.

The nonprofit group argued in a lawsuit filed last week that the changes to the Reflecting Pool were part of a broader effort by Trump to impose dramatic renovations on Washington without proper reviews and undermine the tone of the region.

“No consulting party was informed, engaged, or given an opportunity to participate,” attorneys representing TCLF wrote in a 26-page complaint. “This latest desecration of the reflecting pool is part of a pattern – embodied most notably by the rush to destroy the White’s east wing [House] – in which this administration deliberately ignores the legal limits established by Congress.

A hearing in the case was scheduled for later Thursday in federal court in Washington.

Trump said Thursday he did not need congressional approval for the ark.

“No, we’re doing it,” Trump said of building the ark. “The land belongs to the Department of the Interior, we don’t need anything from Congress.”

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