Arlington County Board Files Lawsuit to Stop Construction of Trump’s Triumphal Arch

The latest attempt to halt the impending construction of President Donald Trump’s 250-foot-tall triumphal arch involves a local government body. The five-member Arlington County Board filed a lawsuit Thursday in the Eastern District of Virginia, related to the project’s questionable review process.

Democracy Forward, the advocacy group representing the Board, along with the Arlington County attorney’s office, referred to the proposal as a “vanity project” that would be “massively intrusive and harmful.” Democracy Forward notes November 5 as the date of the National Capital Planning Commission’s next meeting, at which point the committee could “rubber stamp” the start of construction.

The County Board is asking the court to prevent any demolition or construction until a full environmental review is completed. In early September, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X that “after a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck …” (Though that was posted more than a month ago, the groundbreaking has yet to occur.)

The proposed site for the arch is Memorial Circle at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. One of the most serious complaints about the arch’s impact on dozens of surrounding monuments is that it would “directly obstruct the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery that was deliberately created to symbolize the nation’s post-Civil War reunification,” according to the lawsuit.

Matt de Ferranti, chair of the Arlington County Board, said in a statement that Arlington’s community “has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project.” He added, “Enough is enough. We will do all we can to hold this administration accountable and to protect and serve the best interests of our community.”

The lawsuit, which lists as defendants Bergum, the National Park Service, and Jessica Bowron, acting director of the NPS, accuses the administration of not complying with the National Environmental Policy Act and glossing over the ways it will negatively impact its surroundings, specifically pointing out the impact on emergency services and the increase in noise and air pollution.

“Using the Arch to store large stockpiles of ammunition and as a staging point for drones and snipers, so close to commuters and tourists,” the lawsuit warns, “will dramatically worsen these public-safety harms and the risk of accidents.”