Finalizing this column on Veterans Day, I want to be clear that our nation is forever indebted to the millions of men and women who have served in uniform.
This includes all those serving today, in every corner of the globe, protecting our nation, our freedoms, and our way of life as Americans.
A visit to Washington, D.C. and particularly to the National Mall cannot help but make your chest swell with patriotism and pride, walking the several miles between our Capitol building, to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery, representing among the most hallowed ground in our country.
Along that walk, you will encounter, ponder, and potentially be visibly stunned by the monuments to veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and, of course, the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, among hundreds of other monuments and edifices within Arlington National Cemetery.
Travel abroad can also be inspiring, and that certainly was the case during his first term, when President Donald J. Trump was invited on a state visit to France by President Emmanuel Macron, during a time that included Bastille Day, July 14th.
Each year in Paris since 1880, with only wartime exceptions, the French have celebrated with their Bastille Day military parade. It passes down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Palace of Charles de Gaulle, centered around the Arc de Triomphe, and on to the Palace de la Concorde, where the president of France, members of government, and the mayor of Paris, along with foreign ambassadors and visiting dignitaries, stand in revue.
The French president arrives at the Arc de Triomphe in a Republican Guard convoy, where he is greeted by the parade commander, who then informs the president that the troops and armaments are ready for inspection.
Let’s just say Trump was left impressed by the spectacle. He has since held two grand military review parades in Washington, the first on the Fourth of July and the most recent in June this year, to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army.
At an Oct. 15th donor dinner at the White House, in front of a list of Whitehouse Ballroom donors that read like a Who’s Who of the nation’s wealthiest CEOs and individuals, the president unveiled his next planned improvement for the District of Columbia.
Anticipating the donors in the room might be similarly receptive, Trump touted three models of an “Arc de Trump,” to be built on the D.C. end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Potomac and connects D.C. to Virginia at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery (pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-hosts-dinner-for-donors-to-250million-white-house-ballroom- project).
A journalist in attendance, noting the many monuments already in place to war veterans along the Mall, asked, “Who will this be for?” With little hesitation, the president replied, “It’s for me.”
President Trump would like this arch completed in time for America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026.
The Arc in Paris was commissioned in 1806 to honor those who fought and died for France during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It bears the names of French victories and generals engraved on its inner and outer surfaces. Following multiple construction delays, it was completed in 1836 during the reign of Louis Phillipe.
Closer to home, President Bill Clinton appointed a 12-member Memorial Advisory Board in 1994 to support efforts to construct a World War II memorial on the Mall, a project first proposed nearly seven years earlier. That monument was opened and dedicated on April 29, 2004, by President George W. Bush.
More than $197 million was privately raised for its construction, and the federal government contributed the prominent site and roughly $16 million to its cost. The WWII monument is now staffed and maintained by the U.S. Park Service and hosts approximately 5 million visitors each year.
I give the president, or any occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue reasonably broad purview to make additions/renovations or updates to the People’s House.
However, a monument within the District of Columbia, honoring our nation and veterans — and at the entrance to some of the nation’s most consecrated grounds — should not be rushed for anyone.