Trump arch in Washington: commission approves, court blocks it

A planning commission in Washington has approved Donald Trump’s 76-metre “victory arch,” but a federal court almost immediately barred work from starting for 14 days. According to the AP news agency, eight commission members voted in favour and four against.

The commission is chaired by Mark Paoletta, a Trump appointee. It heard from about a hundred opponents of the project. Those speaking in favour were mostly people from the president’s administration or connected to it, while those against were representatives of the capital. Paoletta said that Trump, as a “first-class builder,” understands that national identity must be expressed through grand monuments.

The court steps in immediately

The Justice Department had said that excavation and foundation work could begin as early as this week. However, as CNN reports, a federal court blocked construction for two weeks. Judge Tanya Chutkan cited possible economic consequences, noise and traffic jams as the reasons for her decision.

The judge granted a lawsuit filed last Saturday by the state of Virginia and the District of Columbia, and combined it with the original suit brought by a group of Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian. In all, three lawsuits have been filed against the project. The plaintiffs argue that the project must be approved by Congress, while the administration insists that Congress authorised it more than a hundred years ago.

In her opinion, according to Reuters, the judge wrote that it is highly unlikely that a century-old law contains permission to build a 76-metre arch in a prominent spot in the capital, one that no previous administration knew about. In her words, this shows how far the authorities have to stretch their arguments.

Taller than the one in Paris

The arch is to stand on a traffic circle near Arlington National Cemetery, directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial. It will be taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which is 50 metres high.

The above-ground portion is not planned to begin before May of next year, and the whole construction will take from 33 to 39 months. Virginia congressman Don Beyer warned that the arch would overload traffic for years, affect the operation of the nearby airport and create public safety risks that the commission refused to acknowledge. On Monday, Trump said the arch would also serve military purposes: drones and snipers could be stationed on it. According to AFP, it is one of the projects through which Trump wants to leave an indelible mark on the American capital.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz