Donald Trump is in a hurry. He cannot wait for cumbersome bureaucratic processes, slow-moving courts or even the law itself.
He must have his arch, and he must have it now.
On Thursday, Interior Secretary Douglas Burgum announced that excavation will begin over the next two weeks for the gargantuan, garish arch Trump has been yearning to install near Arlington National Cemetery. The president calls it a “Triumphal Arch,” though what triumph it is supposed to commemorate is unclear. It will stand as a 250-foot monument to his ego, his insecurity and his bad taste.
For the dozens of existing monuments and memorials in the area, “the undertaking would result in adverse effects,” the National Park Service acknowledged in a legally mandated report.
But there could still be a happy ending to this story — if the next president has the courage. Yet just as an executive order can be revoked or a piece of legislation revised, what Trump constructs can be deconstructed. We are not stuck with the monuments to his narcissism.
The president now spends a great deal of his time working on his vanity construction projects, especially his ballroom. He is desperate to leave a physical mark on the D.C. area, so that generation after generation will know how great he was. Policy successes are for lesser presidents; his legacy will be cast in stone and adorned with gold.
There are obvious problems with almost all of these efforts, from the comically disastrous resurfacing of the Reflecting Pool to the blinding gold leaf he lathered on a pair of statues on the Memorial Bridge — at a cost of $5 million. But the “Arc de Trump,” as some have taken to calling it, is uniquely vulgar.
The arch will be made of granite and (of course) gold. For the dozens of existing monuments and memorials in the area, “the undertaking would result in adverse effects,” the National Park Service acknowledged in a legally mandated report. “It would alter significant views, vistas, designed spatial relationships, commemorative axes, cultural landscape features, circulation patterns, setting, feeling, association, or nighttime visual character.”
The next Democratic president and Congress will confront a complex and challenging project of de-Trumpification.
Most significantly, a straight visual line currently runs from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, symbolically linking the president who saved the Union with the sacrifices of those buried there. Trump’s arch, when completed, will blot out that view from either end.
The next Democratic president and Congress will confront a complex and challenging project of de-Trumpification. Agencies that Trump has gutted or neutered, like the Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will have to be rebuilt. Those he has corrupted to their core, such as the Department of Justice, will have to undergo a kind of decontamination process: removing the hacks and cronies he has installed, rebuilding their ranks with professionals and recommitting the federal workforce to an ethic of service to the country, not to one man or party.
Alongside these practical steps, it will be important to give the nation a symbolic, visual representation of the transition underway. They must see that the recklessness, lawlessness and corruption of the Trump era are being put behind us so something better can take its place. And there is no better way to do that than to remove the monuments Trump has erected to himself.
Some cases will be easier than others. Where he has affixed his name, from the Kennedy Center to the Institute of Peace, a Democratic administration can simply remove it. Tear down and shred those North Korea-style banners hanging from federal buildings. Cancel the Trump Gold Card, revamp and rename the Trump Accounts and TrumpRX. Put “Gulf of Mexico” and “Lake Ontario” back on the maps and “Department of Defense” back on the documents. Cancel the “Trump Class” battleships. Melt down the gold $1 coins bearing Trump’s face that the administration illegally produced.
Trump’s second administration, with its many attacks on the federal government’s capacity, has reminded us that it’s easier to destroy than to build.
Not everything can simply be destroyed. For Trump’s ridiculous ballroom, a renovation would probably be better than simple obliteration. The space can be repurposed into something useful, such as offices and meeting rooms. Maybe name it the Barack Obama Center for American Diversity.
But there is only one solution for the arch.
The project has not yet received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, though he has stocked it with sycophants who will sign off at some point. But he has begun the work anyway. After all, who’s going to stop him? We saw what happened with his ballroom, where he similarly began construction before getting approval. The Supreme Court has let work continue while it considers the legal questions.
When the time comes, the next president can follow all the precedents on executive authority that Trump has established and the Supreme Court has all but rubber-stamped. Fire the relevant commission members and appoint new ones who will approve the changes, repurpose whatever funds are required and squeeze through any necessary legal loophole to get the work underway.
The president will likely get his arch, in all its gold-plated garishness. But like everything about this presidency, it need last only as long as those who come after him allow. Trump’s second administration, with its many attacks on the federal government’s capacity, has reminded us that it’s easier to destroy than to build. So let’s get those wrecking balls ready.
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