Donald Trump has zero integrity no respect for America's fallen heroes. Memorial Day begins the cruel construction for his hideous arch

In Washington DC, the nation’s capital, this Memorial Day will be like no other. Editorial opinion published in the Boston Globe.

The once unbroken vista across the Potomac River leading to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of 400,000 American veterans, last week became something of a construction zone — as plans proceed apace for Donald Trump’s hideous triumphal arch on Memorial Circle.

What the arch is supposed to celebrate — what “triumph,” real or imagined — is itself a matter of controversy and conjecture. What is certain is that nothing — not a lawsuit brought by veterans nor a federal court order halting its construction — will stand in the way of a president more obsessed with monuments than with honoring the fallen service members this day was set aside to honor more than 150 years ago.

Having set his sights on Memorial Circle near the entry to the Arlington military cemetery for his 250-foot arch, topped by two gilded eagles and a gold-plated Lady Liberty — all with wings extended — Trump apparently wasn’t waiting for Congress or the federal courts to give him the go-ahead.

No, exactly a week before Memorial Day 2026, the fencing went up at Memorial Circle, along with an industrial drilling rig and pink flags used by surveyors.

It was days after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had testified at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. And according to Representative Jared Huffman of California, “there wasn’t a project. Not even a proposal. Just a discussion,” Huffman posted on Instagram.

Asked at that hearing, “Who is the arch being built for?” Burgum responded, “For the American people.”

However, when asked last year by a CBS reporter what the monument was for, Trump pointed to himself and answered, “Me.”

And who are we to not take Trump at his word❓

The design was reportedly inspired by Trump’s fascination with the Arc de Triomphe, which began during a visit to Paris in his first term for a ceremony marking the anniversary of the end of World War I. But the Parisian landmark, its construction begun during the reign of Napoleon, is, however, only 164 feet high. It would be dwarfed by Trump’s proposed 250-foot monument — a figure that’s supposed to represent the nation’s 250th birthday and originally slated to be completed by July 4, 2026.

Meanwhile, the administration has cut medical staffing at the Veterans Affairs Department.

The arch would be more than double the size of the Lincoln Memorial and the equivalent of a 25-story office building, the lawsuit filed against its construction notes.

“Its location on Memorial Circle would situate the monument on an axis between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, obstructing a line of sight that was designed to represent the unification of the Nation following the Civil War and that has existed for nearly a century,” the suit says.

The lawsuit also charges the construction is illegal because it lacks congressional approval and ignores a host of “statutes impos[ing] procedural requirements” for construction in the area.

But mostly, the Vietnam vets and the architectural historian bringing the suit argue it “would dishonor their military and foreign service and the legacy of their comrades and other veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and would degrade their personal experience when visiting Arlington Cemetery or traveling around Memorial Circle and on the Memorial Avenue Corridor.”

And could there be a more stark contrast to the row upon row of simple white gravestones than this proposed gaudy monument to nothing more than the enormous ego of the current occupant of the White House❓🤢

It speaks volumes about the offensiveness of this ego driven project — and its location — that the administration simply couldn’t wait for this Memorial Day to pass before the very pathway to Arlington National Cemetery was desecrated with fencing and drilling equipment.

People, of course, will still come to Arlington, will still place the flags that honor loved ones, brothers and sisters in arms, fallen heroes, as they have since this sacred place was opened to honor the service of those who fought on opposite sides in a war that nearly tore this nation apart. Arlington became part of the healing process — as it was on that day in May 1868, when some 5,000 men and women walked among the then 20,000 graves of Union and Confederate soldiers, decorating them “with the choicest flowers of springtime,” former Union General John A. Logan insisted.

“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance,” he added. “Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

True then. Truer now.