US Commission of Fine Arts approves Trump’s Washington, DC arch despite public opposition

On 21 May, the US Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) voted to approve President Donald Trump’s proposal for a 250-foot-tall arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, DC, despite a staff report stating public comments were “99.5%” opposed. CFA chairman Rodney Mims Cook, Jr. moved for final approval, which passed among the four commissioners present; National Endowment for the Arts chair Mary Anne Carter attended earlier but did not return for the vote. Architects from Harrison Design said Trump rejected an earlier CFA suggestion to remove gold statuary and reduce the height from 250 feet to 166 feet, though some commissioners argued the main structure is 166 feet. Revised plans remove an eight-foot platform, gold lions, and a proposed visitor tunnel, instead relying on crosswalks and traffic lights to access the site near Arlington National Cemetery.

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