Excavation work on President Donald Trump's triumphal arch is scheduled to begin over the next two weeks, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Sept. 3.
"This will be one of the great pieces of American architecture, honoring the history and significance of Arlington Cemetery and befitting the most powerful capital in the world," Burgum said in a post on X.
Burgum also included pictures of what the arch would look like.
The proposed monument would include a mezzanine level at 166 feet, a 24-foot-high observation deck, and a 60-foot statue of Lady Liberty at the top.
The structure, which is intended to mark America's 250th anniversary, would prominently display the inscriptions "One Nation Under God" and "Liberty and Justice for All."
It was inspired by the 164-foot-high Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
However, as Jackson Richman reports for The Epoch Times,the proposal has sparked a legal challenge.
A group of veterans and a historian, represented by public interest law firm Public Citizen Litigation Group, have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block construction, arguing that the arch would interfere with the historic sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, among other concerns.
The Justice Department has responded that Congress approved large structures at the planned site decades ago and gave authority to the National Park Service to change their design.
The National Park Service released a report on the arch on Aug. 28 that supported the project but warned there would be adverse effects on the sightlines between a host of iconic landmarks such as the Washington Monument and Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.
The arch, announced last October, is proposed to be built on a man-made island overseen by the National Park Service, located on the Virginia side of the Potomac River near Memorial Bridge, which connects to the Lincoln Memorial.
At 250 feet, the structure would be significantly taller than the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet tall, and roughly half the height of the Washington Monument.
It is one of the numerous projects Trump has undertaken as part of his stated goal of beautifying the nation's capital.
The president also seeks to renovate East Potomac Golf Links, build an arch near the Lincoln Memorial, and construct a ballroom on White House grounds.
He renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which will need to be refilled after deficiencies were found. The president blamed vandalism as well as contractor error.
Although the arch proposal has been approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal government's planning agency for the D.C. region, has to give final approval for the project.
When it will do so is to be determined.
The commission met on Sept. 3, but the arch was not on the agenda.
Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 17:20Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,
States must alert the federal government to known illegal immigrants when they opt into receiving certain federal welfare benefits, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday.
The move withdraws a 1998 DOJ opinion and clarifies that under a 1996 welfare-reform law - the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act - all state agencies, including those that administer welfare funding, have the duty to report individuals unlawfully in the United States to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to the new Office of Legal Counsel opinion, which was issued Sept. 1, states risk losing funds for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Security Income programs if they do not comply.
"Congress wrote this requirement plainly," said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser of the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel.
"When a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States."
States that do not alert DHS to unlawful individuals attempting to obtain welfare thus encourage illegal immigration and take tax dollars away from U.S. citizens, Gaiser said in a statement.
The previous Clinton-era interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which is now reversed, limited states' reporting requirement of illegal immigrants to immigration authorities only to state agencies administering the welfare funds.
"We reached that view by disregarding [the 1996 law's] definition of 'State' and giving that term inconsistent meanings within the same statutory provision," the Office of Legal Counsel admitted in its new opinion. "We conclude that our 1998 Opinion improperly narrowed the conditions that Congress attached to federal funding for certain federal benefits programs. We now withdraw it."
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories participate in TANF and the Supplemental Security Income programs, the DOJ said.
Funding for the TANF program alone accounts for more than $16.4 billion each year.
DOJ Office of Legal Counsel Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, who authored the new opinion, said it doesn't impose any new obligations on states. It only restores the original meaning of the 1996 act that binds all state agencies to federal law in sharing information with DHS about known illegal immigrants, he stated.
"States that accept TANF funding must abide by federal law, and failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding," Craddock said in the statement.
The DOJ clarified this new opinion only applies prospectively. States will not face retroactive penalties or altered agreements for welfare funds because those contracts complied with the 1998 interpretation.
Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 17:00