Triumphal arch may join capital’s monuments for America’s 250th birthday

President Trump is making his mark on the White House and Washington, especially with the 250th anniversary of America next year, and those plans may include a triumphal arch.

Photos of a model appeared on the president’s desk during his Oval Office meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday and with Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Thursday. The model showed an aerial shot of the Lincoln Memorial and the new arch on the other side of the Potomac River.

The arch would sit over a traffic roundabout that brings people into the city from Virginia, according to the images.

Mirroring the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the new arch would have a golden winged angel and two white eagles atop it.

A picture of the arch design was also posted on X by Nicolas Charbonneau, an architect at Harrison Design, which says it “specializes in high-end residential architecture, interior design and landscape architecture.”

“A proposal for a triumphal arch in DC for #America250, in the traffic circle in front of Arlington National Cemetery. America needs a triumphal arch!” Mr. Charbonneau wrote on X last month.

The plans were first presented to the president earlier this year, and he was enthusiastic about the idea, The Washington Post reported

The president has already changed the Rose Garden at the White House, paving it over and installing a stone patio with umbrellas, even calling it the Rose Garden Club for dinners. Also going up is a White House ballroom.

In August, he signed an executive order calling for federal architecture to be beautiful again.

“For approximately a century and a half following America’s founding, America’s Federal architecture continued to be characterized by beautiful and beloved buildings of largely, though not exclusively, classical design,” the order says. “In the 1960s, the Federal Government largely replaced traditional designs for new construction with modernist and brutalist ones. The Federal architecture that ensued, overseen by the General Services Administration, was often unpopular with Americans.”

For the 250th anniversary, the president has a large-scale celebration planned, including a UFC fight at the White House.

The Washington Times has reached out to the White House for comment.