The Trump administration says it will break ground on a 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., without final federal approval and despite an ongoing lawsuit.
Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Trump administration says it’ll soon break ground on a 250-foot triumphal arch without final federal approval and despite an ongoing lawsuit. The veterans who brought that lawsuit have asked a judge to step in. She did late last night. NPR’s Rachel Treisman has been covering this saga and joins us now. Rachel, thanks for being with us.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: A pleasure.
SIMON: We’re talking about an enormous arch, gold statues on top. It would be built at one end of the bridge that connects the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Did the judge stop it, or is the government forging ahead?
TREISMAN: Well, the government would like to. So as a reminder, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that it would start excavation work within two weeks. And that was surprising to people because the arch hasn’t gotten final approval yet. It did get design approval in May from one federal panel packed with Trump appointees, but it still needs the green light from the National Capital Planning Commission, which doesn’t meet again until October. And several agencies are still conducting studies on the potential impacts of the arch, including on the nearby D.C. airport.
A White House spokesperson told me they’re only doing work that does not require approval and, quote, “helps in the process.” Now, lawyers for the government clarified in a filing late Friday that they’re talking about archaeological surveys, not construction. After that, the judge ordered the government to give 48 hours’ notice before doing anything other than on-site information gathering, so we’ll have to wait and see.
SIMON: Rachel, remind us – who is fighting the construction and why?
TREISMAN: Well, broadly speaking, historic preservation experts have accused the Trump administration of trying to rush the review process for this arch basically since it was introduced last October. And then earlier this year, an architectural historian and three Vietnam War veterans sued. They said the arch would desecrate Arlington National Cemetery and requires approval from Congress. The Trump administration disagrees. And it was those plaintiffs that asked the judge yesterday to issue a restraining order to block construction for two weeks.
NICHOLAS SANSONE: We have no sense of why the administration believes it’s authorized to begin work on the arch.
TREISMAN: Nicholas Sansone, the lead attorney in the case, says any work at the proposed site is premature. He says once construction starts, it might be hard for a court to offer any real relief. And we saw that play out recently when Trump had the White House East Wing demolished to build a ballroom.
SIMON: Supreme Court issued a ruling on that ballroom this week. Does that have any bearing on the arch?
TREISMAN: Well, it might. Also, on Thursday, the Trump administration filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the arch lawsuit altogether, and it specifically pointed to that Supreme Court ballroom ruling, which says the plaintiffs in that case didn’t have legal standing to sue in the first place. Sansone, the lawyer, says that is definitely not the case with the Vietnam Veterans suing over the arch since they have a deep personal connection to the cemetery. But he says there’s a lot at stake, even for people who don’t.
SANSONE: A system where the executive branch essentially gets to build first and answer later the question of whether that building is lawful should trouble all of us.
TREISMAN: I should say tens of thousands of critics from all over the country have submitted public comments as part of this review process. They worry the arch would disrupt everything from traffic to funeral services at Arlington to views of the National Mall. And, in fact, the National Park Service even acknowledged in a report last week that the arch would affect dozens of historic sites nearby, but it’s still moving ahead.
SIMON: What are you watching for next in the story, Rachel?
TREISMAN: Well, government lawyers have said the work will start no sooner than September 21, and they say any natural resources affected would be restored by the end of October. And that basically brings us to midterm elections in early November. U.S. Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, thinks that might explain President Trump’s hurry.
DON BEYER: He has no one in the Republican Party willing to stand up to him on many, many different things. He only might have that trifecta for another couple of weeks.
TREISMAN: Beyer says he has actually yet to meet a constituent who supports the arch, and he expects big protests whenever work does start. Now, the Trump administration has said it expects construction would take two to three years, factoring in a 20-hour-a-day, year-round work schedule that could take us right up until the end of Trump’s term.
SIMON: NPR’s Rachel Treisman. Thanks so much.
TREISMAN: Thank you.
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