Trump’s plan to militarize proposed arch raises new legal, safety concerns
· Yahoo NewsPresident Donald Trump's push to convert his planned triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery into a military complex has complicated a required federal review process and raised new legal and safety concerns.
Trump unveiled his new national security rationale Sunday in a post to Truth Social, saying that the 250-foot arch project - which he has framed for nearly a year as a tourist attraction - will now house drones, snipers and ammunition. The president said he was making the change at the request of the U.S. military.
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Critics of the plan saw echoes of Trump's shifting security case for the White House ballroom, which the administration has used to defend that project in court. But while presidents have historically had some leeway to revamp the White House grounds, the arch would stand on federal parkland more than a mile away, where Congress has set stricter rules for construction.
"There is nothing that authorizes or justifies a massive arch, even if Trump tries to disguise it as a military facility," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), the top Democrat on a House committee that oversees federal parkland. "This is cartoonishly illegal, but he's obviously trying to find a way to do it anyway."
Aviation experts warned Monday that using drones at the planned arch site - Memorial Circle, a roundabout near Reagan National Airport - could pose risks in the airport's crowded airspace.
"Anything you add to the airspace complicates the airspace and increases the operational risk," said Tom Lintner, a former safety official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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Other military and safety experts have questioned the implications of storing ammunition in the middle of a heavily used traffic circle and whether tourists could still enter the arch as previously planned.
Historic preservationists participating in a required federal review process said they could not move forward until the administration clarifies Trump's plans for the arch. Administration officials last week had asked Washington and Virginia's preservation offices to agree to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) by Monday as part of that process, and they invited other preservationists to participate.
"This MOA is DOA," Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation wrote in an email to the administration on Monday. An official for Washington's historic preservation office also wrote in an email that the office needed clarity on Trump's post. Both emails were shared with The Washington Post.
Administration officials have declined to offer further details about Trump's plans to convert the arch to a military complex. They have previously said that they will not begin construction on the arch until they have received "all necessary approvals."
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But Trump has pushed his deputies to expedite the arch and other construction projects, particularly in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling on Aug. 31 that let him continue building his ballroom, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The ruling did not decide the merits of the case.
Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon said on Monday that they had no additional information to provide beyond the president's social media post. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it was not clear if U.S. Northern Command, which oversees domestic military operations, has been asked to develop any related plans.
Military officials with Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, which oversees military operations to protect D.C., did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. Spokespeople for the Interior Department and the National Park Service also did not respond to questions about the project. The Federal Aviation Administration referred questions to the White House.
Until Sunday, the Trump administration had largely portrayed the arch as a prominent tourist attraction. Architectural plans posted by the National Park Service last month include a "ticket booth," a "family restroom" and other features atypical of any active military complex.
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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum mentioned that the arch would also offer a "military observation deck" in a social media post earlier this month.
The administration had already faced safety questions, in part because the 250-foot-tall structure would sit directly in National Airport flight paths. Aviation safety there has garnered significant attention since a 2025 collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet near the airport that killed 67 people.
On Friday, the FAA said it had determined that the arch would not pose a hazard to aircraft, including at National Airport. That finding preceded Trump's announcement about drones, whose type and frequency of use remain unclear.
In its final study on the arch, the FAA said the proposed structure should feature "a nonstandard eternal flame" to make it noticeable to pilots. It also said the arch should be continuously floodlighted by searchlight projectors around its base.
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Jeff Guzzetti, a former FAA and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigator, said having drones in the flight path of National would worsen the airport's congestion problem.
"Even not knowing how often these things are going to be used, it would certainly increase the risk of a collision with a commercial airliner," Guzzetti said.
Michael McCormick, coordinator of the Air Traffic Management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said he expected the FAA would need to conduct another study.
"Whatever the drones are, no matter what, the FAA would have to approve their flight because it's civilian airspace," McCormick said. "It cannot be a unilateral decision by the Pentagon."
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