'Wasteful, gaudy, disruptive': Massive scale of Trump's arch would radically alter DC

President Donald Trump's enormous triumphal arch took a step closer to reality after its early designs received approval from his handpicked fine arts commission, and CNN's Tom Foreman revealed how the massive structure would dwarf its surroundings in the nation's capital.

The 79-year-old president has proposed a towering, 250-foot arch, modeled after the 164-foot Arc de Triomphe in Paris, in honor of the country’s semiquincentennial, and its imposing scale would be twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial, nearly as tall as the Capitol and potentially interfere with flight paths around Washington Reagan National Airport.

"Wasteful, gaudy, disruptive," Foreman said. "Against a torrent of publiccomplaints, the Trumpadministration is plowing aheadwith plans for a massivetriumphal arch across the riverfrom the Lincoln Memorial, withno less than the interiorsecretary telling the U.S. Fine Arts Commission the project will strengthen the city'ssymbolic architecturalvocabulary, will enhance thecity's triumphal urban design."

"The president began talkingup what some are calling the Arcde Trump last year, and the sizehas now quadrupled to a towering250 feet – taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, just a bitshorter than the U.S. Capitol."

Washington Post culture critic Philip Kennicott has warned the proposed structure makes no sense architecturally or symbolically.

"This is gargantuan, and it'sgoing to fundamentally changethe skyline," Kennicott said. "Why a triumphal arch? Whendid America celebrate triumphs?We honor sacrifice, we honorservice, and when war is over,we get back to peace. He justdoesn't understand the historyand the symbolism of this city."

The president has been slapping his name onto buildings and proposing dramatic changes to Washington as he looks to remake the nation and its capital in his own image.

"I think he believes thatthis is going to be part of hislegacy, that if he builds agigantic arch, that surelywon't be dismantled, that itwill continue to place him inthis kind of pantheon of greatpresidents," said Sarah Bond, an associateprofessor of ancient history at the University of Iowa.

The $100 million is moving ahead with the approval of Trump's appointees, and the president and his administration have brushed aside concerns about its impact on its surroundings.

"Team Trump says the edificewill enhance Arlington [National Cemetery] and thenation's 250th birthday," Foreman said. "Butwhen Trump rolled out his ideaand was asked who's it for, hisanswer then 'me.'"

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