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Sunday, September 20, 2026

Trump Announces Military Features for Planned Triumphal Arch Near Washington

Trump Announces Military Features for Planned Triumphal Arch Near Washington
Photo: BBC World

President Donald Trump, currently in Washington after an early return from Camp David, announced on Sunday that the planned triumphal arch connecting Washington, D.C., and Virginia will include a "top grade military complex." According to Trump's post on Truth Social, the modification to the arch's design is intended for national security purposes and was requested by the U.S. military. The complex is planned to store military equipment and will have capabilities to deploy snipers and drones as part of its functions.

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The takes

  • Portrait of Adam Smith

    Adam Smith

    1723–1790, Scotland (the Scottish Enlightenment: Kirkcaldy, Glasgow, Edinburgh)

    A Triumphal Arch Is a Dear Place to Store Ammunition

    When a government hides a barracks inside a monument, it taxes both the treasury and the virtue it pretends to celebrate.

    A vast triumphal arch, we are told, is to rise by the Potomac, bridging the capital and its neighbour, and within this architectural boast there is now to be lodged a “top grade military complex,” able to store arms and unleash snipers and drones. The declared purpose is national security; the form is a monument; the substance is a magazine and redoubt. It is a curious contrivance: the symbols of victory built first, the victories themselves left for later. I have no objection to arsenals as such, nor to walls thick enough to resist an enemy; but when the arsenal masquerades as a temple of glory, the impartial spectator begins to count the cost in coin and in character.

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  • Portrait of John Locke

    John Locke

    1632–1704, England (writing amid the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution)

    A Triumphal Arch Is No Place for a Hidden Fortress

    When a ruler stuffs a public monument with snipers, drones, and ammunition on his own say‑so, he ceases to govern by consent and begins to rule by fear.

    The present controversy, as it has been reported, is plain in its outline, though thin in many particulars. The President has proposed a massive triumphal arch, bridging the capital and its neighboring territory, and now announces that this public work shall incorporate a “top grade military complex.” It will store military equipment, perhaps ammunition, and be fitted to deploy snipers and drones, all, he says, for national security and at the request of the military. I am told this was proclaimed in a brief public message, not debated in any open council of the people’s representatives. The work is to rise near their monuments and resting places, yet without their clear, prior assent.

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  • Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli

    Niccolò Machiavelli

    1469–1527, Florence (republican secretary and diplomat, then exile, amid the Italian Wars)

    A Triumphal Arch That Shoots Back

    When a ruler turns a monument into a fortress, he shows more prudence than piety — and pushes his republic closer to the edge between fear and hatred.

    A triumphal arch that stores weapons and can launch snipers and drones is a very modern jest of fortune. President Trump announces that his planned, 250‑foot arch, bridging Washington, D.C. and Virginia near Arlington, will now house a “top grade military complex,” able to deploy force “for National Security purposes,” at the request of the military itself. Thus a symbol of glory becomes also an instrument of war. I pay no attention to the sermons that will follow about beauty, taste, or sacrilege. As I wrote in The Prince, in W. K. Marriott’s translation, those who chase how one ought to live rather than how one does live “sooner effect their ruin than their preservation.”

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