Vote splits along federal and local lines before a judge’s 14-day halt
The National Capital Planning Commission voted 8-4 on Thursday to give final approval to President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot (76-meter) triumphal arch in Washington, after a remote hearing that ran more than nine hours and drew scores of people opposed to the project. Hours later, in the early hours of Friday, November 6, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking construction work on the arch — a major setback for one of the most prominent projects in Trump’s effort to remake the capital.
The vote broke along federal and local lines. Commissioners who favored the arch work for the administration or are connected to the president, who was pushing for immediate construction, while the opponents on the panel represented the city of Washington.
Thursday’s commission meeting was a remote, call-in proceeding that crashed repeatedly in its first few hours, and its online comment section was nearly universally negative. Dozens of witnesses told the commission the arch would destroy the solemnity of nearby Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of fallen service members and military veterans are buried. People have also protested against the planned arch in Arlington, Virginia.
Mark Paoletta, the commission’s Trump-appointed chair, opened the meeting with praise for the monument and for the president. “President Trump understands as president and a superb builder that it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments,” said Paoletta, who also serves as general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget. As Trump has often remarked, Paoletta said, “the great cities around the world have arches: Paris, Rome, London.”
Commissioner Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for the General Services Administration, said the arch was “not about politics. It’s about remembrance. It’s about celebrating our history. It’s about commemorating veterans. And it’s really something that’s a noble tribute to our nation and something that we can all rally behind.”
Phil Mendelson, a District of Columbia council member who also sits on the planning panel, said the project had not received the required approval from Congress and that Congress had appropriated no money for it. He said the plan submitted to the commission does not include the reference to military use that Trump and other administration officials have cited. “We cannot approve final site and building plans until we have the final site and building plans,” Mendelson said.
Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is set to chair the House Natural Resources Committee, called the project ill-advised and illegal. “This arch would dishonor America,” Huffman told the commission, calling the proposed arch “a tribute to Donald Trump” rather than a tribute to veterans, as Trump administration officials claim. He said the monument resembled those built for emperors or kings, and he accused Trump of using veterans as a pretext to build a memorial to himself.
The administration had said work on the arch could begin as soon as Thursday’s approval was in hand, the Interior Department issued a final decision authorizing construction and the National Park Service published the proper notification.
It remains unclear what the arch will cost or how it would be paid for, though some estimates have reached as high as $100 million. Trump held up a model of the proposed monument in October 2025.
In issuing the delay, Chutkan granted the request of the latest plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging the arch and consolidated the suits filed by the District of Columbia and Virginia with those of a group of Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian.
The arch is one of several projects around Washington that Trump has undertaken as he remakes the city, from renovating one of its storied public golf courses to threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Those projects could soon face greater scrutiny after Democrats gained control of Congress.