Vietnam Veterans File Restraining Order to Block Progress on Trump’s 250-Foot Triumphal Arch

A group of Vietnam veterans filed for a temporary restraining order on Friday to stop progress on one of Trump’s projects to alter the landscape of the nation’s capital, a 250-foot triumphal arch. 

The plaintiffs are veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, and Jon Gundersen, along with architectural historian Calder Loth, who are represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, of Washington, D.C. They filed their motion for a 14-day restraining order on Friday, after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X on Thursday that “excavation work” for the arch would come within two weeks, promising that the arch would be “one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful Capital in the World.”

The arch, however, has not received congressional approval. It is slated to go up at Memorial Circle, across the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, from the Lincoln Memorial. The president debuted a model of the monument in October 2025, telling CBS News that the arch is dedicated to himself. Trump wants his arch, at 250 feet, to be taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which rises to 162.5 feet. The plaintiffs argue that the arch would disrupt sightlines between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

The veterans first filed suit in February against Trump; Vince Haley, of the president’s office; and the National Park Service (NPS), aiming to stop progress on the project, absent authorization from Congress. In April, they agreed to dismiss their motion in exchange for assurances that NPS would not authorize construction without posting a notice of its authorization online and that NPS would provide at least 14 days’ notice prior to beginning construction or demolition ahead of construction. 

“The imminent course of action that Secretary Burgum has announced to the American people is unlawful many times over,” the Friday filing reads, further alleging that it violates the court’s April order. It adds that “once a building project has begun, a later order to reverse course raises ‘significant’ practical problems,” and that the defendants “have offered no evidence that beginning construction of a commemorative arch is a matter of such exigency that blocking construction until this Court has had the opportunity to rule on the project’s legality will irreparably harm Defendants or the public interest.”

“This court,” conclude the plaintiffs, “should enter a temporary restraining order blocking Defendants’ efforts to blaze ahead with an unlawful course of conduct in the hope that they can render the arch a fait accompli before this Court has had the chance to reach a final determination as to whether Defendants’ project is authorized by law.”

In a responding filing entered “to clarify Plaintiffs’ misunderstanding and avoid any potential for further confusion,” the Trump administration argues that the new activity will be “long-disclosed Phase 1B archaeological survey work,” conducted to ensure compliance with statutes such as the National Historic Preservation Act. “This activity is not construction, or demolition in preparation for construction, of an arch,” it says, noting that the work will consist of digging four test pits. 

The planning of the District of Columbia has been subject to great deliberation ever since it was founded in the late 18th century, notes the plaintiffs’ filing, with Congress responsible, since 1912, for authorizing any additional monuments and structures. 

The Trump administration has shown no regard for Congressional or any other authority in his campaign to remodel the White House and Washington overall to suit his taste. This has included gilding large monuments near the Lincoln Memorial, adding Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in violation of its founding documents, and abruptly removing a major Joel Shapiro work from the center’s grounds.

Most dramatically, he razed the East Wing of the White House without warning last October to make way for one of his favored projects, a massive ballroom-cum-military bunker that preservationists say would be out of proportion with the rest of the White House. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled this week, 5–4, that construction could go ahead absent approval from Congress, saying that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit chartered by Congress to guard public buildings, which brought suit against the administration, did not have standing.