Trump wants to build 250ft Washington DC arch that dwarfs Lincoln Memorial – report | Donald Trump
Donald Trump reportedly wants the arch he plans to build in Washington DC to be in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial.
US president predicts planned arch to be 250ft high, or significantly taller than the 100ft-tall Lincoln Memorial in the Washington Post reported on Saturday. It would also be significantly taller than Paris’s 164ft-high Arc de Triomphe; but it would be less than half the height of the world’s tallest arch, the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri.
Trump has his eye on a plot of land near the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River, the Post reported, citing two people familiar with the plans who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity.
The latest proposed addition to the Washington skyline comes as Trump is already building a new East Wing for the White House that includes a ballroom. The new 89,000-square-foot ballroom is expected to be larger than the White House’s 55,000-square-foot footprint at the same 70-foot height.
The size of what Trump has dubbed Independence Arch has already alarmed some architecture experts, including those who initially supported a smaller arch.
Art critic Catesby Leigh, who designed a more modest arch, said: “I don’t think an arch this big belongs there.” 2024 articlehe told the Post. Leigh’s idea was reportedly conveyed to Trump by allies of the President’s administration.
Leigh had originally proposed a temporary 60ft arch to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence. But Trump opted for a permanent design four times larger, funded by donations left over from the $400 million White House ballroom project.
“If you’re going to build an arch this big, you should build it somewhere else in the city, and one possible location that comes to mind is Barney Circle,” Leigh said. Barney Circle in southeast Washington, D.C. overlooks the Anacostia River.
“There’s nothing around to compete with it,” added Leigh.
But Leigh also recommended an architect named Nicolas Leo Charbonneau in September. Excitedly shared on Twitter/X: “America needs a triumphal arch!” along with a render. Charbonneau has since reportedly been retained by the White House to work on the project.
But the location of the proposed arch is on a small piece of land under the jurisdiction of the U.S. national park service. Located between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, this monument could obstruct pedestrian views as well as reshape the existing relationship between the two monuments.
At the same time, erecting a celebratory arch at Memorial Circle midway between the sightlines of Arlington national cemetery, the Memorial Bridge (envisioned as a symbolic representation of peace between the Union and the Confederacy after the Civil War), and the Lincoln Memorial could be thematically jarring.
“It’s a very dreary corridor,” John Haigh, head of Benedictine College’s architecture program, told the Post.
Trump is reportedly considering more modest arch designs, including 55-foot-tall and 123-foot-tall versions, which he shared at a dinner in 2025. But the president decided to go big in part because 250ft reflects the 250th anniversary of the US declaration of independence in July.
At the dinner, people quoted Trump as saying: “250 to 250 makes the most sense.”
Trump is said to have told guests at the White House Christmas reception: “The thing people know most about is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. And I think we’re going to go way beyond that.”
The idea of a massive arch in Washington, D.C. isn’t entirely new. Embers he told Politico He said in December that he hoped to begin construction on the arch within two months. in early january published images To the Truth Social platform, which consists of three potential designs, one of which is gilded.
The Post noted that Washington is unusual among major cities in its lack of a triumphal arch to commemorate national achievements.
Atlanta philanthropist and developer Rodney Mims Cook Jr., president of the National Monuments Foundation, was appointed by Trump to the Fine Arts Commission, which would theoretically oversee the arch.
