Keeping up with Donald Trump’s many renovation and construction distractions is a daunting task. In the midst of a war and economic tumult, the president has spent months preoccupied with his ballroom vanity project, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the installation of a White House helipad and the construction of a White House venue for an upcoming UFC fight.
Alas, that’s just the start. The Republican has also been fixated on his desire to turn the Eisenhower Executive Office Building into a giant white blob, his stated interest in renovating the White House Treaty Room, his specific marble and paint preferences for the Kennedy Center, his plans for a “statue garden,” his sudden interest in fountains around the nation’s capital and the dozen or so other renovation projects Trump has prioritized in and around the White House complex.
And then, of course, there’s the president’s crusade to build a “triumphal arch” that, according to Trump, would be erected for him personally.
The plan to build a 250-foot arch just across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, in front of Arlington National Cemetery, has run into several pitfalls. For one thing, there’s an ongoing lawsuit that might very well succeed. For another, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently told Congress under oath that the project is only at the “discussion” stage, and when evidence to the contrary emerged, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, argued that the Cabinet secretary came “pretty damn close” to committing perjury.
In case that weren’t quite enough, The Washington Post reported last week that the Republican administration was moving forward with plans to start work on the arch “by piggybacking on an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services” a mile away, which in turn would “allow the administration to bypass a potentially lengthy public bidding process.”
As a rule, when a White House has to rely on subterfuge to advance its ambitions, it’s a bad sign.
At this point, common sense might suggest that Congress would intervene in this fiasco, but as the Post reported in a new article, Team Trump is preparing to circumvent lawmakers. From the reporting:
The Trump administration does not plan to seek approval from Congress for President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot arch, arguing that they do not need it because lawmakers a century ago authorized a somewhat similar project that was never built.
Evidently, in 1924, a federal commission charged with designing the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which connects Washington and Virginia between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, called for building a pair of 166-foot columns, surrounded by statues, on the site where Trump wants an arch. Congress ratified the plan in 1925, but there was no follow-through on the columns or statues.
Keen readers might notice the subtle, qualitative differences between a 250-foot arch and 166-foot columns, but the Trump administration has nevertheless adopted a “close enough” posture to conclude it can use this 102-year-old plan to pursue the president’s goal, whether Congress likes it or not.
I won’t pretend to know how this increasingly ridiculous exercise will play out, but on Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts, which is stacked with Trump loyalists, voted to approve the existing design of Trump’s arch, despite the controversies and public opposition. The National Capital Planning Commission, which the White House has also filled with political allies, is scheduled to review the proposed design on June 4.
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