Arlington County Sues to Block Trump's Triumphal Arch

The county is home to Arlington National Cemetery, the military gravesite that is central to the legal battle over the planned arch.

The county board in Arlington, Va., sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block the construction of President Trump's proposed triumphal arch in Washington.

Arlington County is home to the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery, the hallowed military gravesite that is central to the legal battle over the planned arch. The Park Service has acknowledged that the arch, given its huge scale, would "adversely affect" the visual link between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial on the opposite side of the Potomac River, obstructing, for example, the view from President John F. Kennedy's grave.

The five-member Arlington County Board is made up entirely of Democrats. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the county in the 2024 presidential election with 78 percent of the vote.

In the lawsuit -- directed at the National Park Service and Doug Burgum, the interior secretary -- the county officials argued that the Trump administration failed to comply with a legally mandated review of the environmental impact of building the arch.

"The county brings this lawsuit," the suit read, "to halt the agency's feverish pace toward construction of the arch and to ensure that the 'hard look' mandated" by law "is completed before the agency commences disruptive and harmful ground-disturbing activities."

The National Park Service has steamrolled through statutorily required reviews of the arch project, despite outside objections and its own assessment that the monument would alter views at dozens of historic sites near it.

The administration is planning for the arch to come before the National Capital Planning Commission for a final vote on Nov. 5, two days after the midterm elections.