Outraged veterans wage daily war on Trump's latest 'atrocity'

When two veterans traveled from the Minneapolis area to Washington, D.C., to protest Donald Trump’s plans for a triumphal arch outside of Arlington National Cemetery, they were struck by their colleagues from the armed services who showed up — and had been showing up — for vigils every weekday since September.

A woman who served in the Vietnam War protesting in a wheelchair.

Another woman holding a folded flag for her parents buried at Arlington.

“It's not Democrat or Republican. It's all veterans are not being treated correctly, and they just want to see somebody recognize them, see them, and take care of them and their families,” said Ed Higgins, 49, a Marine Corps veteran from Columbia Heights, Minnesota, who organized a Stop the Arch protest alongside Vietnam veteran Ronn Easton on October 27 and 28.

Higgins, who made headlines after being detained following a vehicle confrontation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during immigration raids in February, joined more than 100 other citizens to speak out against Trump's plan at the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meeting on November 5.

“There were a lot of people who basically stepped up to the plate and told them that this is hallowed ground. This is sacred, and for [Trump] to build that is a travesty,” said Easton, who previously organized a petition signed by thousands of veterans and their families to push against the "monstrosity" of the arch, which would be built at Memorial Circle, located between Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery.

The NCPC granted final approval for Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall Monumental Arch on November 5, but less than two hours later, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued a 14-day temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration from starting construction on the arch.

“If it wasn't for the political aspect of eight people on that committee who were Trump people, it definitely wouldn't have passed. This is a political thing, and Trump has said that it's about him, that has nothing to do with the people. It has nothing to do with remembering veterans,” Higgins said.

Gary Langston, 68, who served 29 years in the Army and whose parents are both buried at Arlington National Cemetery, has protested the arch through the group, Third Act DMV, which organizes demonstrations with citizens over 60 in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and joined Higgns and Easton's protest.

“What you have now is something that's — it sounds trite, but — literally gaslighting the Kennedy gravesite at the same time when the Kennedy Center itself is under threat of being demolished. It’s ridiculous,” Langston said.

The Kennedy family made moves to join litigation blocking the Trump arch on Tuesday, arguing the monument would cast a shadow upon family graves and block the sightline from the eternal flame at President John F. Kennedy’s gravesite.

The arch has become an issue for veterans transcending political parties — with nearly all opponents agreeing on the arch representing Trump’s “vanity,” said Jonathan Hirsch, who served in the Army for 30 years and lives in Arlington, Virginia.

“I have not heard anybody say that this is not a vanity project for Trump. Everybody who I've spoken with has said, ‘Yeah, if it weren't for him and his vanity, we wouldn't be having this issue,'” Hirsch said.

“They oppose this expression of vanity on his part because he never served, so, why should there be anything involving him along that axis?”

Trump avoided the draft for the Vietnam War five times, and veterans have been outraged by his language disparaging veterans as "losers" and "suckers."

Dave Otto, 65, spent three years serving in the Army as military police and worked for 19 years as a federal employee in the Departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security.

Otto, who lives in Manassas, Virginia and is protesting the arch, said he’s historically voted for Republicans more than Democrats but has distanced himself from the Republican Party over the last 25 years.

“I read it as a personality cult trying to literally change the aesthetics and the architectural language of the Capitol, to try to leave their mark on democracy for 100 years,” Otto said.

Across the fellow veterans Otto has met protesting the arch, there was an agreement that the Democratic sweep of Congress was necessary to have a chance of actually stopping the arch.

“Certainly the people I was talking with, organizing with, we felt that the only prayer we had of stopping the arch was a wave type election,” Otto said.

“We think if this is going to be stopped, which would certainly be our aim, it would require getting this thing into the next Congress.”

Ralph Nix, 63, who served 20 years in the Navy and lives outside of Washington, D.C., called Trump “one of the most corrupt presidents in the United States of America, who has done nothing to support veterans.”

Nix has protested against the arch numerous times with Third Act DMV and has twice spoken against the plan in front of the NCPC.

He said veterans have come out to protest for a range of reasons from opposing the arch for disrupting the final resting place for service members who died, to standing up against the Trump administration's policies to speaking out “against all the money [Trump's] spending on vanity projects while taking money away from the general public.”

“This cemetery is where our troops that have paid the ultimate price is buried, and this monstrosity is going to block the view of Arlington Cemetery from the Lincoln Memorial and vice versa,” Nix said.

“I'm not out there for me. I am out there for my fellow service members who have paid the ultimate price and can't talk for themselves, and not only them, but their families … It's just an atrocity that this man is committing while in office.”

Otto said some vets he’s talked to are taking a stand “because it's Memorial Circle outside of Arlington, that is what is offensive to them.”

For others, it's about pushing against the MAGA movement and Trump, while some are "looking at more of the rule of law, stewardship, governance,” Otto said.

“This is the ideologues building a trophy to themselves,” Otto said.

“We're going to do everything in our power to stop this because they've not earned a trophy to their degenerate movement.”

Easton and Higgins are already planning their next protest for veterans in D.C., called “Defend the Capitol, Defend Democracy, Hold the Line at the Capitol” when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3.

“We are there to make sure that the new representatives are able to walk into the Capitol building and be able to start their job,” Higgins said.