Trump's Triumphal Arch Wins Final Approval, Enjoys Nearly an Hour of It

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s triumphal arch received its final federal approval Thursday night. It kept that approval, unencumbered, for less than an hour.

The National Capital Planning Commission voted 8-4 to approve the 250-foot arch, CBS News reported. The vote came after more than nine hours of public comment. The four votes against came from members not appointed by Trump, NBC News reported.

Within the hour, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order. It bars any “construction-related activity” for 14 days, CNN and CBS News reported.

The administration had said it was ready to start construction almost immediately after the vote, the judge wrote, according to NBC News. Chutkan was ready sooner.

The hearing

About 130 people signed up to speak, NBC News reported. The commission also received more than 1,300 written comments, mostly against the project, CBS News reported.

The virtual meeting stopped for about 30 minutes in the middle. Commission chair Mark Paoletta, who is also general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget, called the interruption a “malicious attack,” NBC News reported. The arch’s opponents, by contrast, had attacked it for nine hours with their names attached.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California was among the opponents. “This arch would dishonor America, our ideals, and our laws,” he said, CBS News reported.

The arch

The arch would stand in Memorial Circle, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Construction is expected to take three years, CBS News reported. Its cost is unclear, and so is who is paying for it.

The design has two eagles and a gilded winged figure on top. It once had four golden lions as well. In May, the Commission of Fine Arts had the lions removed, noting they are “not native to the United States,” CNN reported.

That is the only part of the project anyone in Washington has successfully deported.

The ruling

Chutkan’s ruling runs 33 pages. She wrote that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing the government did not follow required legal processes, CBS News reported.

The plaintiffs are two Vietnam War veterans, Michael Lemmon and Shaun Byrnes, along with Virginia and the District of Columbia. Lemmon is also a former U.S. ambassador to Armenia. The veterans first sued in February.

Chutkan found that Virginia and D.C. have standing based on “tangible economic harms” from traffic, CBS News reported. On the risk of letting work begin, she wrote that “the harm is certain,” NBC News reported.

The pattern

On Thursday the president also declared the Oval Office a national monument, to keep the next president from changing it. On Thursday night his arch was stopped by people who would like Memorial Circle kept the way it is.

The principle appears to be broadly popular. It is applied selectively.

“The commission approved it at night so construction could start in the morning,” said a federal official known to this bureau only as Deep Throat Lozenge. “The judge also works at night. Nobody put that in the plan.”

The order expires in two weeks. The lions have not appealed.