On 21 May 2026, four out of seven members of the Trump-appointed U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the design for a 250-foot-high Independence Arch, which has been inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and nicknamed the “Arc de Trump.” This monumental arch is to be erected on Memorial Circle, a traffic circle that lies between the Lincoln Memorial and the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. The arch will be topped by a golden-winged Lady Liberty, holding aloft a torch and flanked by two 24-foot gilded eagles. “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” will be inscribed in gold lettering atop either side of the monument. A public observation deck will provide 360-degree views of the surroundings. The design awaits endorsement by the National Capital Planning Commission. The General Services Administration has been made responsible to ensure that architects adhere to the recommendations of the EO. If and when it is finally erected, the arch will become the tallest monument in Washington DC, and also the tallest triumphal arch in the world. Its construction will fulfil President Trump’s ambitions of a triumphal arch for the capital city, surpassing similar structures in Brussels, Bucharest, Lisbon, London, Mexico City, New Delhi, Paris, Pyongyang, Rome, and elsewhere. By virtue of its height, the arch could also pose a potential hazard for planes on their final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is a mere five miles away.
President Trump’s desire to beautify federal civic architecture has been outlined in a Memorandum titled ‘Promoting Federal Civic Architecture’ (January 20 2025) and in an Executive Order (EO) on ‘Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again’ (August 28 2025). In the words of the latter EO, federal public buildings should “respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces.” Pierre Charles L’ Enfant’s design for Washington DC was indeed inspired by the classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome, only to be defiled by modernist and brutalist buildings from the 1960s onwards. The classical architecture preferred by Trump encompasses “Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco” styles. The wider umbrella term of “traditional architecture” includes classical architecture and “historic humanistic architecture such as Gothic, Romanesque, Second Empire, Pueblo Revival, Spanish Colonial, and other Mediterranean styles.” Trump’s EO departs from the 1962 Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, a one-page document that was drafted by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and provided the basis for federal architectural policy until now. Moynihan rejected an “official style” and recommended plans that embodied “the finest contemporary architectural thought.”
President Trump, with his decades of experience in real estate management and property development, has started to make his lasting mark on the executive mansion. Two massive galvanised steel flagpoles have towered over the North and South Lawns at the White House since June 2025. The manicured grass lawn of the Rose Garden was bulldozed in the same month, ostensibly to protect high-heeled women from sinking into soggy soil, and converted into a patio of square stone tiles laid in a diamond pattern and lined with roses along the perimeter. The Oval Office has been gaudily redecorated in gold furnishings and transformed, in the words of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, into a “golden office for a golden age.” The granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the street from the West Wing, is to be repainted in white for aesthetic reasons.
The pièce de résistance of Trump’s redevelopment of the White House is a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, supposed to be able to seat 999 people. The East Wing was somewhat hastily demolished in October 2025 under the East Wing Modernisation Project, with the approval of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, and to the surprise and consternation of many others. Construction of the ballroom will be funded by $400 million of funds solicited from private donors and corporations, including a contribution from the President himself. An additional $1 billion of taxpayer dollars has been controversially requested, as part of a bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBF), for “security adjustments and upgrades…to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project.”
Two miles from the White House, the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is to be painted a patriotic “American flag blue.” A sculpture garden of 250 American Heroes will line the Potomac River in West Potomac Park. The 18-hole East Potomac Golf Links will be redesigned and converted into a “championship-level course.” In support of a developmental project much further away, a Bill (H.R.792) to add Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore, around 1,600 miles from Washington, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna on 28 January 2025. It seems unlikely, however, that some of these projects will be completed, let alone approved, in time for the independence anniversary celebrations.
Trump’s actions replicate those of some other authoritarian rulers of recent times, who have envisioned and constructed monumental structures to project their personal power and glorify their respective regimes. It is of particular note that neoclassical architecture is considered suitably majestic for this purpose. Notable twentieth-century examples include Benito Mussolini’s EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) district of Rome, Albert Speer’s grandiose designs for Welthaupstadt Germania in Berlin, and Joseph Stalin’s ostentatious ambitions for the city of Moscow. More recent examples of grand projects of urban landscaping and redevelopment can be found in Ankara, Ashgabat, Beijing, and Pyongyang.
Questions have been raised as to whether the US federal government should expend so much time, money, and effort to rush through vanity projects at a time of economic crisis and military conflict, especially in the face of overwhelming public opposition. What President Trump chooses to do with his own money on his private property, such as erecting his 22-foot gold statue at Trump National golf course in Doral, near Miami, Florida, is up to him. And he is by no means unique in his desire to transform the White House, as several former American presidents have left their mark on the décor of the mansion. Commendable though Trump’s plans to beautify Washington DC may well be, his plans for the White House Ballroom, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and the Independence Arch are currently being challenged in the courts by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the D.C. Preservation League, and Public Citizen, respectively. In this context, speculation is pointless and the rule of law should be allowed to run its normal course. In the year of Trump’s 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of American independence, many surprises lie ahead in the months to come.
Ashis Banerjee