Detailed plans for reversing President Donald Trump's physical stamp on Washington, D.C., were laid out by an MS NOW columnist who argued that a future Democratic administration should treat his monuments, renamings and branded programs as temporary rather than permanent.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that excavation will begin within two weeks on Trump's long-sought "Triumphal Arch," a 250-foot granite-and-gold structure planned near Arlington National Cemetery. The National Park Service has already acknowledged in a legally required report that the project would cause "adverse effects" on existing monuments in the area, including disrupting a sightline that currently connects the Lincoln Memorial to the cemetery.
"But there could still be a happy ending to this story — if the next president has the courage," wrote MS NOW's Paul Waldman. "Yet just as an executive order can be revoked or a piece of legislation revised, what Trump constructs can be deconstructed. We are not stuck with the monuments to his narcissism."
Waldman argued the arch should simply be torn down once Trump leaves office, calling it uniquely objectionable compared with the administration's other construction efforts, such as a gold-leaf statue restoration and a disputed White House ballroom project.
"Not everything can simply be destroyed," he wrote. "For Trump’s ridiculous ballroom, a renovation would probably be better than simple obliteration. The space can be repurposed into something useful, such as offices and meeting rooms. Maybe name it the Barack Obama Center for American Diversity."
"But there is only one solution for the arch," Waldman added.
Waldman called for rebuilding federal agencies weakened under Trump, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and for removing officials installed at the Justice Department.
Other suggestions include stripping Trump's name from institutions such as the Kennedy Center, reversing name changes like "Gulf of Mexico" and restoring "Department of Defense," and eliminating Trump-branded initiatives such as the Trump Gold Card program and Trump Accounts.
A future administration could rely on the same expansive executive-power precedents Trump has used — including replacing commission members and construction that proceeds ahead of formal approval — to unwind his projects, pointing to the Supreme Court's decision to let ballroom construction continue amid ongoing litigation as a template, the columnist argued.
"The president will likely get his arch, in all its gold-plated garishness," Waldman concluded. "But like everything about this presidency, it need last only as long as those who come after him allow. Trump’s second administration, with its many attacks on the federal government’s capacity, has reminded us that it’s easier to destroy than to build. So let’s get those wrecking balls ready."