Veterans Sue to Block Trump's 250-Foot Arch Plan

Three Vietnam War veterans who became US diplomats, along with a historic preservationist, sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block a proposed 250-foot "triumphal arch" from being built in the capital just west of the Potomac. The suit argues President Trump's project, which he wants completed for this year's US semiquincentennial celebration, would intrude on views from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia toward the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and disrupt the historic layout of the capital's core memorials, the Washington Post reports.

Filed by watchdog group Public Citizen in DC federal court, the suit says the administration is barreling ahead without approval from Congress or required federal review panels; no formal proposal has yet landed before those bodies. The plaintiffs contend the arch would break carefully designed sight lines along Memorial Avenue, alter the symbolic connection of the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington House, and Arlington Memorial Bridge, and "dishonor" the cemetery's meaning for visitors and future interments. A recent Economist/YouGov poll found 52% of US adults oppose the project, with 21% in support. Trump said at the end of December that construction would begin in two months.