Trump Arch Illegal—Only Congress Can Authorize Monuments in D.C.

Trump’s triumphal arch is illegal, say six members of Congress in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum:

“We oppose this project in the strongest terms and object to execution of the draft Programmatic Agreement. The National Park Service (NPS) is assessing the effects of an undertaking that Congress has never authorized and that two federal statutes squarely prohibit,” Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman (Calif.), Maxine Dexter (Ore.) and Yaasmin Ansari (Ariz.) wrote.

…efforts to erect a 250-foot triumphal arch violate the Height of Buildings Act under its current dimensions and the Commemorative Works Act, which requires congressional approval to erect structures on federal land.

“A departure of this magnitude from the capital’s settled vertical order is precisely the kind of decision the law reserves to Congress,” lawmakers wrote.

“Beyond its illegality, the Arch would deface one of the most deliberate and historic sightlines in America,” they added.

…“No valid authority has been conferred here. Every official who directs this work, and every firm that performs it, proceeds at their own peril,” lawmakers wrote.

“If the Administration believes the semiquincentennial warrants a permanent commemorative work in the capital, the path is open and well worn; it runs through Congress, as it has for every memorial since the Continental Congress approved the first, an equestrian statue of George Washington, in 1783,” they concluded [Ashleigh Fields, “Lawmakers Caution Burgum, NPS They Have “No Power to Build’ Trump’s Arch,” The Hill, 2026.06.15].

This November, we need to elect a Congress that will reassert its constitutional authority and check the wild and costly excesses of the current Executive Branch to save our country, not to mention the sightlines of our nation’s Capital. Either that, or we’re going to need a new Million Man March… with sledgehammers.