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By Anna Rahmanan
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Washington loves to turn presidents into monuments and, in true Donald Trump style, the current commander in chief seems intent on reversing the process, turning the monuments of Washington into reflections of himself.
His proposed triumphal arch outside Arlington National Cemetery may offer the most literal expression yet of that ambition. According to reports, the endlessly spoken about 250-foot structure would cast its shadow across tens of thousands of graves, including that of John F. Kennedy.
Even the dead would find themselves in Trump's shadow. Posterity, it seems, will have to wait its turn.
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The arch would rise from Memorial Circle, at the western end of Arlington Memorial Bridge, on the ceremonial route connecting the Lincoln Memorial with Arlington National Cemetery. Conceived to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, it would tower over the Lincoln Memorial and even Paris' Arc de Triomphe. The French, who have spent two centuries perfecting the art of monumental self-importance, might reasonably wonder whether they have been outdone.
The President as His Own Historian
There is something impatient about Trump's approach to posterity that is worth analyzing. Washington's monuments generally emerge from the slow business of historical judgment. Take the Washington Monument, for example, which was completed decades after its subject's death. Then there is the Lincoln Memorial, which opened in 1922, nearly six decades after Lincoln's assassination.
The interval between history and art allows a president's achievements to be weighed against his failures, and his place in the national story to be negotiated by generations who never voted for him.
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Trump has little apparent interest in waiting for such deliberations. The arch is being planned during his presidency, to his preferred dimensions, with preliminary approval already granted by a federal commission chaired by a White House official.
Its official purpose is patriotic rather than personal and there is certainly a legitimate case for marking the nation's anniversary with a new monument. The idea of an arch at Memorial Circle predates Trump, after all, with supporters arguing that the capital deserves a grander architectural celebration of American independence.
Yet the scale of the whole shindig introduces a curious question of authorship: a monument can commemorate the nation while bearing the unmistakable aesthetic signature of the man who commissioned it.
When History Gets in the Way
The matter of Kennedy's grave adds a certain irony to the proceedings. Trump may be rushing to secure his place in history before history has had a chance to judge him. And who knows? Posterity might prove kinder to his presidency than his contemporaries. By commissioning his own architectural legacy, he risks inviting a verdict before all the evidence is in. But perhaps that's his point?
According to The Washington Post's computer modeling, Trump's arch would cast shadows over Arlington National Cemetery on 284 days a year, passing across more than 75,000 graves. Kennedy's memorial specifically would be shaded on 50 days, his eternal flame on 18.
The Interior Department has conducted its own simulations, though it disputes the Post's conclusions about the extent of the problem. Its calculations suggest that shadows would affect a small portion of the cemetery during opening hours for less than two weeks annually. Most of the shadows identified by the Post would disappear before visitors arrive.
Fair enough. The dead are unlikely to complain about the lighting anyway.
But what happens when a president inserts a monument of his own choosing into a landscape already crowded with national memory? The arch would dominate the approach to Arlington, altering the relationship between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. And once built, it would be considerably harder to remove than the president who commissioned it.
The administration has acknowledged adverse effects on historic sites. Veterans and preservationists have challenged the project in court, while federal planners are expected to consider final approval on November 5. There is reason, then, to give posterity a little more time.
Trump may yet get his monument. Future generations might regard it as a fitting tribute to American independence, or as an unfortunate artifact of a singular presidency. They might even judge Trump more favorably than his critics do today.
After all, stone can preserve a president's intentions. It cannot oblige history to agree with them.
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