President Trump said construction for his planned Triumphal Arch in Washington is set to begin early in the new year.
The president first mentioned plans for a Triumphal Arch in October. Models were seen of the project on the president’s desk.
“It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,” Mr. Trump told Politico. “They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”
Models of the arch show it would mirror designs of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It would sit across from the Lincoln Memorial and serve as a welcome to visitors who are entering Washington from Virginia.
Mr. Trump unveiled a 3D model of the arch while at a dinner for the donors of his ballroom. He showed guests a small, medium and large model, but quipped that he liked the large one the best.
“That’s Arlington Memorial Bridge,” Mr. Trump told attendees. “And at the end of it, you have a circle that was built 150 years ago. In fact, they put a couple of columns on each side. You have two columns on one side, two columns on the other, but yet, in the middle, just a circle. And everyone in the past had said something was supposed to be built there. That’s true. But a thing called the Civil War interfered. That’s a good reason.”
The president has moved to make his mark on Washington in several ways. His 90,000-square-foot ballroom is underway at the White House.
He has also changed several other aspects of the White House, including covering the Oval Office with gold appliqués and paving over a section of grass in the Rose Garden.
He added a “Presidential Walk of Fame” with pictures of presidents in gold frames and added descriptive — sometimes derisive — plaques underneath each one. The Palm Room, which connects the White House residence to the West Colonnade, has also been renovated with a marble floor and a new chandelier.
Mr. Trump has also taken over the Kennedy Center, which included a renaming of the building to include his name alongside former President John F. Kennedy.
He has shown off photos of potential marble armrests that could replace the ones at the arts center.
And, on Friday, he stopped at Arc Stone & Tile in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, to purchase marble and “at his own expense, for the White House ballroom,” a White House official told the press pool.
