The Arc de Trump
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By Brendan Wilson
Last month plans were approved for an enormous triumphal arch in Washington DC. At 250 feet, the monument would tower over nearly every other structure in the Capitol. DC residents are decidedly unimpressed. The president is ecstatic.
The proposed arch has been called the "Independence Arch," but has also been mockingly referred to as the Arc de Trump. The inspiration for its construction belongs to the president, who was struck with the idea while marveling at the Arc de Triomphe during a Bastille Day celebration in 2017. Trump’s arch would bear a remarkable resemblance to the Parisian one. It will be built of gleaming white marble and adorned with a 60-foot angel plated in 24 karat Trump Tower gold. Its sole inscription: “One Nation Under God and Justice for All.”
During a time when the founding principles of our republic seem to be under threat, it’s refreshing to know that at least one thing still endures: our founders’ obsession with Greco-Roman architecture.
For two years this blog has been silent, so you may be wondering why I’ve decided to charge back into battle on so a lame horse. Arches? The last two years have given rise to wars, toppled governments, an American pope, Bridgerton, and artificial intelligence. Why retake the digital stage for a topic as pedestrian as an unbuilt stack of granite? The truth is that after 24 months away from the diving board, I’m more comfortable wading into the shallow end first.
Back to arches. The Arc de Trump will commemorate 250 years as an independent nation. Why an arch? Well, according to Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum, because we don’t have one yet. “Today, Washington, DC, is the only major western world capital without a monumental arch.” While true, it wouldn’t be our country’s first. There is the Washington Square Arch in Manhattan, the Millennium Gate Arch in Atlanta, and the National Memorial Arch in Valley Forge. Why build structures with absolutely no practical architectural purpose?
As is often the case, we can thank the Romans, who constructed them as monuments to honor the victories, campaigns, and conquests that satisfied their blood lust for treasure and territory. Their arches, like ours today, served no purpose other than to represent power and dominance. They carried inscriptions and inlaid statues that told the stories of the Roman heroes that inspired them. To stand before one was to know the awesome power of Rome.
The earliest known arches were erected in 196 B.C. and 190 B.C. to celebrate the victories of Lucius Stertinius and Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War. Two hundred years later, an arch was erected to honor the victory of Augustus over Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the civil war that ended the republic. Sadly, none of these survive.
Present day visitors to Roman Forum can, however, visit the Arch of Tutus, built in 81 C.E. to celebrate the emperor’s violent suppression of the Judean rebellion that resulted in the destruction of the second Temple on the Mount. The Arch of Septimus Severus, built in 203 C.E., also still stands. Perhaps the most famous is the Arch of Constantine, which can be found in the shadow of the colosseum.
The fall of Rome in the fifth century gave way to the Middle Ages, a time during which not much was built outside of churches, forts, and castles with big moats. But in the 15th century, the fog began to lift, and the western world slowly returned to the humanist principles of Roman antiquity – its art, philosophy, and architecture were once more en vogue. Arches began to spring up once more.
The Arco di Trionfo di Castel Nuovo was erected in 1471 to celebrate the reconquest of Naples by Alfonso V of Aragon. The Triumphal Arch of the Lorraine was bult in 1737 to mark the entry of future Holy Roman Emperor Fracis of Lorraine into Florence. Most famous, The Arc de Triomphe was completed in 1836 to commemorate all those that died in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars.
For over two millennia, arches such as the one now proposed in Washington DC have been built to celebrate victory, convey strength and dominance, and boost national pride.
Upon hearing of the proposed project, I may have joked about President Trump, his portly disposition cloaked in a Roman Toga, sternly presiding over the execution of the barbarian kings of Gaul on the National Mall. I may have also highlighted the hypocrisy of spending a billion dollars on a giant vanity project months after hundreds of thousands of federal employees were fired by a Musk email.
After some sober reflection, however, I recall the significance of the democratic experiment kicked off by our founders 250 years ago. Not since antiquity had so much freedom and power been transferred from the hands of the rulers to those of the people.
So, whether you sympathize with the current administration does not matter. These United States and the Constitution that serves as its bedrock has been the greatest government experience in the human history. This experiment, after a rocky start, grew into a flourishing young nation, which eventually inspired millions of others around the world to establish their own nations governed by the rule of law. Though hindsight disguises its success as inevitable, this experiment wasn’t just risky at the outset but doomed by most to fail. The fact that we’ve survived a quarter millennium is a remarkable testament to the creative genius that flowed from our founders.
To not celebrate the 250th anniversary of an idea that has led to so much prosperity, freedom, and happiness, not just for Americans, but for millions around the world, would be a shame. I fully the support the Arc de Trump. I hope they build it... and top it with 250 candles.
Note about AI: Artificial intelligence was involved in neither the composition, the research, nor the structure of this blog - likely to the detriment of you, the reader, as Claude is no doubt a superior writer. Its sole contribution was the tidy little image of emperor Trump with laurels as the essay’s feature image.
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