A federal judge was temporarily blocked construction of US President Donald Trump’s “triumphal arch” in Washington.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that there should be a 14-day pause before any work can start on the arch which the Trump administration had said could begin this week.
Earlier on Thursday the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) voted 8-4 to allow construction of the planned 250ft (72m) arch.
Trump appointees on the board said the arch would be a fitting tribute to US history and to veterans but opponents have argued it wouldblock the view of Arlington National Cemetery, the resting place of thousands of US soldiers and service people.
The so-called Arc de Trump – a play on the name of the famous arch in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe – is one of the US president’s efforts to remake the capital city in his style and is meant to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary.
The approval on Thursday evening came after nearly nine hours of public comment.
It is not yet clear when construction of the arch could start, as a number of lawsuits are seeking to block it.
A rendering of the project’s design from earlier this year includes a golden, winged Lady Liberty statue on the top of the arch, flanked by two gold eagles. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” are inscribed in gold on either side of the structure.
The Trump administration has said the arch would double as a complex to store military equipment – complete with the ability to deploy snipers and drones.
“There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World,” Trump previously wrote on his Truth Social platform. He added that out of “the 59 top cities and Capitals”, Washington is “the only one in the world that does not have a triumphal arch”. He did not specify to which cities he was referring.
Mark Paoletta, the chairman of the NCPC and one of the Trump appointees, said at Thursday’s meeting that the president understood “it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments”.
He and other commissioners said the structure fulfils a 100-year plan to build a monumental work on Columbia Island, just as Congress and various commissions intended.
Paoletta added that the arch would honour the nation, its veterans and “provide the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery with the monumental gateway it deserves”.
Opponents have strongly disagreed.
Anne Wright, who spent 29 years in the US military and also worked in the diplomatic service, told the BBC she would try to stop the construction.
“We’ll tie ourselves to the bulldozer, we’ve got veterans in wheelchairs and we’ll chain the wheelchairs to these things,” she said.
Wright referenced this week’s midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party lost control of Congress, saying: “[Trump’s] policy of war, of ego – they’ve been rejected.”
Fellow veteran John Pomeroy – who served in the Air Force for six years, including during the Vietnam War, and whose parents are buried at Arlington – said the arch “would lessen the solemn nature of a visit to the cemetery”.
He described Trump’s suggestion that the arch could store military equipment as “silly” and a “half-baked idea”, arguing it would be a target for terrorist attacks.
Like Wright, Pomeroy said he would “impede construction workers as much as I can” if they came to the site to begin work.
Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman argued in his statement to the commission that the arch would disrupt sightlines not just of Arlington but of the Lincoln Memorial, fracturing “a view meant to underscore the unity and sacrifice of the American people, and doing that with a structure we often associate with emperors or kings who built grand arches as tributes to themselves”.
“This is a tribute to Donald Trump,” Huffman added.
Lawsuits have been filed against the plans, raising concerns about the environment, traffic congestion and safety. There is also a disagreement over whether congressional approval is needed to build the arch.
It is one of several construction projects Trump has proposed for the US capital. That includes at the White House, where he is facing legal challenges over the construction of a ballroom, which is estimated to cost $400m (£300m).
His plans to renovate a 106-year-old golf course, which he has dubbed “trash island”, is also being challenged in the courts.
By BBC News
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