The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday found that President Donald Trump’s proposed new monument in Washington, D.C., does not pose a threat to air safety, allowing plans for the grand arch to advance. Architects have situated the “Triumphal Arch” on an empty traffic island in Memorial Circle, lying between the Lincoln Memorial…
Page A2From§Eachthe supper edition — 24 September 2026
Park Service found arch's harm to historic sites unavoidable; eight days later, the review is terminated
As it ran on the front
The chief pinned a calendar to the wall, because this job is a calendar.
September 3: the Interior secretary says the government is preparing "over the next two-week period" to start excavation for the Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck. September 5: NPR reports the administration will break ground on 250 feet of it without final federal approval, with a lawsuit pending. September 16: the National Park Service sends preservation groups a memorandum of agreement, having concluded the arch would have unavoidable adverse effects on historic sites around the capital — mitigation, which is the government's word for we cannot stop the harm, here is a list of consolations. September 18: the FAA finds the height no hazard to air traffic. September 20: the arch becomes, by Truth Social post, a top-grade military complex housing drones and snipers, at the military's request. September 21: a senior member of House Appropriations says defense money should go to other military needs instead. September 24: the federal council reviewing the arch's effects on historic sites terminates that review. The same morning, the congressman whose district holds the traffic island drives out to the site, because constituents called about the construction vehicles.…
…(cont) The planner admires it the way you admire a safe with the door already open. Every tool needed to stop this is federal, current, and in the hands of the same government running the backhoe.
Parts list. One: the review itself, described by the Times as a legally required step — terminating a required step does not unrequire it. Two: the Park Service memo, the government's own signed finding that the damage is unavoidable; that paper does not dissolve when the council adjourns. Three: the FAA letter, dated the 18th, which measured a monument. The drone-and-sniper complex was announced on the 20th. The thing that cleared review and the thing being dug are two days apart. Four: the appropriations gavel, held by a Republican who put the objection on the record before the check cleared. Five: the lawsuit, still live, which is where "no final federal approvals" becomes a sentence somebody reads out loud in a room with a stenographer.
The muscle goes first and wrecks the premise that a finding of unavoidable harm can be cured by ending the meeting where the harm was discussed. The tinkerer bolts the memo to the docket. The pilot is already parked at the site with the constituents who made the call.
They will tell you there is no money for your kid's school. A senior appropriator from their own party says this money belongs to other military needs. The hole is dug. The paperwork is not.
“Read the order of it: the Park Service says the damage to historic ground can't be avoided, and eight days later the body reviewing that damage closes the review. That's not a finding, that's a light switch. And the thing they're digging for on a traffic island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington isn't a monument anymore — he said Sunday it's a complex for drones and snipers, and a Republican appropriator says the Pentagon has other bills.”
“The review concluded. That's what terminated means, it means concluded, it reached its natural — did I say natural? That doesn't sound like me. Look, the FAA signed off on the height on the 18th, everything's cleared, and if the mission changed on the 20th, well, the military asked, and you don't audit the military, unless you're Mike Simpson apparently, who I'm told is on our side.”
The receipts
President Trump on Sunday said that the plans for the massive triumphal arch bridging Washington, D.C., and Virginia will incorporate a "top grade military complex." Trump said in a Truth Social post that this change to the arch was at the request of the U.S. military "for National Security purposes." "I have agreed to convert...
A prominent Democrat said Thursday that President Trump appears to be laying the groundwork for construction of his controversial arch just outside Washington. Rep. Don Beyer (D), who represents the Northern Virginia district where the arch would stand, said he visited the site Thursday morning after constituents informed him that…
Trump’s allies end a legally required step, one of the final hurdles for the project to advance.
Senior House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) on Monday said he is against using defense spending to fund President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch, noting that other military needs should be prioritized. Trump said on Sunday that his planned arch will now be a military complex to house drones and snipers…
· Interior preparing to start work on Trump's arch 'over the next two-week period' from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· National Park Service offers plan to mitigate ‘adverse effects’ of Trump arch from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
· Trump administration to dig at triumphal arch site despite no final federal approvals from the morgue, 5 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.