The Trump administration has published new renderings of the president’s proposed 250-foot triumphal arch, which would loom large over the capital’s skyline.
The mockups, produced by Harrison Design, portray a towering white monument along the banks of the Potomac River, which bears resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It features gilded ornamentation, four lion statues, a winged figure crowning the top and the inscription “One Nation Under God” emblazoned across its facade.
The arch is slated for construction in Memorial Circle, a prominent roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, and directly across the river from the Lincoln Memorial.
The Interior Department submitted the renderings Friday with the Commission on Fine Arts, a congressionally-established federal agency that offers guidance on architectural proposals, according to The Washington Post. The commission is scheduled to examine the proposal next week.
Friday marked the first time the Trump administration officially submitted plans for the arch, which the president has mused and boasted about for months.
“I’d like it to be the biggest one of all,” Trump told reporters in January. “We’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”
When asked three months earlier who the arch was for, Trump responded: “Me. Going to be beautiful.”
Officially conceived as a tribute to America's 250th anniversary, Trump's proposed arch has stirred controversy, with critics decrying its imposing scale. At 250 feet, the riverside monument would be taller than the White House and the Lincoln Memorial.
“I don’t think an arch that large belongs there,” Catesby Leigh, an art critic, told The Washington Post. Other architectural experts said that the sheer size of the arch would dwarf the city’s surrounding monuments.
It could also pose a problem for air safety since it would be placed near a corridor used by flights approaching from the north, according to CNN. In January 2025, the deadliest air collision in decades took place just a few miles away near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
At least some Washington, D.C. residents have signaled support for the project though.
“It’s a good idea and it’s a good spot for it right in that grass,” local D.C. residents told The Times in October. “It’s a good line for a view there.”
One potential wrinkle in plans arises from a law designating parts of the city as protected land, where erecting monuments requires congressional approval. Memorial Circle sits within these boundaries.
As a result, Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, is attempting to stop the project until Congress weighs in on the matter. The legal challenge gained additional support in March when multiple Democratic lawmakers signed on.
Questions also linger over the project's funding.
The Trump administration previously said the arch will be paid for using leftover donations from the president’s White House ballroom project. But a spending plan for the National Endowment for the Humanities released this week revealed that taxpayer dollars will be used, according to CBS News.
The towering arch is just one of Trump’s initiatives to remake Washington, D.C. in his image.
In addition to the White House ballroom now under construction, he has paved over the Rose Garden, gilded the Oval Office, erected towering flagpoles on the White House lawn and renamed the Kennedy Center after himself.
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