Donald Trump has pursued new inspiration in style in the city of New Delhi. The president described India’s national war memorial as a “beautiful triumphal arch” in a post on Monday but quickly attached a competitive twist to the comparison: “Ours will be the greatest of them all.”
A Monument for the 250th Anniversary
The post comes as the Trump administration ramps up plans for what is tentatively being called the “Independence Arch.” Set to coincide with the United States' 250th anniversary of independence this year, the President has claimed to take pleasure in creating a design roughly 250 feet tall. For practical purposes, India Gate stands 138 feet (42 meters) high, and Paris’s famously storied Arc de Triomphe measures 164 feet tall. Built on the President's favored scale, the new U.S. arch would tower over the Lincoln Memorial and become a landmark in the Washington skyline.
"250 for 250"
Trump was lamenting Washington is still the only major world capital without such a structure, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One over a weekend. “For 200 years, they wanted to build an arch,” Trump said. “They have 57 cities around the world that have them. We’re the only major city that doesn’t. I’d like it to be the biggest one of all — we’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”
The proposed site is allegedly near Memorial Circle, located between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Although critics say a building that scale can “overshadow” existing historic sites, the President has held that “everyone loves it” and that it will make a grand entrance into the city.
Expanding the D.C. Overhaul
The arch is part of a sweeping, grand transformation of the federal district in the new President’s second term. Other projects include:
A new $250 million White House Ballroom
Major renovations to the Kennedy Center (now newly renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center).
Upgrades to the White House Rose Garden and Palm Room.
Although a special committee is being established to assist in overseeing the construction of the arch, the President said it was planned that in the next few months this work could begin to prepare an "Independence Arch" ready for the nation's milestone celebration.
