Our Orange Napoleon Wants a Big Arch
The Bulwark · C · trust 53/100
It’s a lot of things, but it’s not “American.”
William Kristol , Andrew Egger , and Mark Hertling September 9 Upgrade to listen 19 minutes 574 324 45 It’s Convention Day! Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and a coterie of administration and congressional bigwigs will descend on Dallas today to apply themselves to the work of re-convincing the American people that the Trump experiment is working, that America is the hottest country in the world, and that they just need a little more time to get this thing really popping off. For some reason, Trump will be speaking both Wednesday night and Thursday night. And for some reason, the two speeches will be competing against the first two games of the new NFL season: Seahawks vs. Patriots tonight, Rams vs. 49ers tomorrow. But it’s probably fine: Those teams are all from blue states, so odds are the American people won’t want to tune in. Happy Wednesday.
Join Mark Hertling and Ben Parker for Command Post today at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Substack and YouTube .
A replica of President Trump’s planned “Triumphal Arch” and the United States Capitol are seen at the Great American State Fair on July 3, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Stop the Arch by William Kristol
Doug Burgum, Donald Trump’s hapless interior secretary, weighed in last week to defend his boss’s plan for a “Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck” that would loom over the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.
Burgum explained that “this will be one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture . . . befitting the most powerful Capital in the World.” He included in his post an artist’s rendering of this Great Piece of American Architecture:
I’m personally doubtful that this would rank as a Great Piece of American Architecture. Quite the contrary, I suspect. To my untrained eye, it seems undistinguished, vulgar, and overbearing.
But what do I know about architecture? What I do know is that this is not American architecture. It is triumphal, in its way. But that way is European. Or South American. Or North Korean.
What could be less American than an imperial-style arch? And what could be more American than joining a pro-democracy community like Bulwark+?
Burgum himself inadvertently makes this point : “Over 70 major cities/capitals around the world . . . showcase beautiful arches. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is the only major Western capital without an arch.”
I’m old enough to remember when we Americans would have taken this as a point of distinction, as a point of pride. We don’t do Great Triumphal Arches. We don’t want Great Triumphal Arches. We don’t need Great Triumphal Arches to prove to ourselves that we are a great nation.
That’s what emperors and dictators do. Trump’s inspiration for his Great Triumphal Arch seems to have been the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806. But Napoleon’s dictatorial rule was the outcome of a failed revolution. We used to be proud that the American Revolution took a different path from the French. We used to be proud that the American Revolution culminated in the American Constitution, that it led to the establishment of a constitutional republic that has flourished for two and half centuries, not an empire that lasted a couple of decades.
So here in Washington, D.C., we honor George Washington, not Napoleon. Washington was elected president of the new republic, governed constitutionally, and turned over the reins of government after two terms. Napoleon seized power, governed dictatorially, and kept power until he led his nation to bloody defeat in wars he launched.
We used to be proud that Washington was the father of our country. We used to be proud of American exceptionalism.
No more. Trump has Napoleon envy. Indeed, the Trump administration’s Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck would be 250 feet tall, 54 percent taller than Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe. We’ll have, as Burgum boasted, “the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all!”
By the way, you might ask, what’s up with the “Military Observation Deck?” There aren’t any military activities around Memorial Bridge to observe. But the “Military Observation Deck” is there, I suppose, so that tourists can munch on their snacks and feel good about our Triumphal Greatness as they look down on Arlington cemetery. Or maybe it’s to paint the arch in a thin coating of National Security, for the benefit of the courts, so that they’re more inclined to let the administration do whatever it wants.
In a new video opposing the arch , co-produced by our friends at Home of the Brave (in which I and some other Bulwarkers are involved) along with the organization VoteVets, we hear from Gold Star mother Karen Meredith:
I’m the proud Gold Star mother of First Lieutenant Ken Ballard. He was killed in the Iraq war. Ken is buried at Arlington. So for me, Arlington has been a nice, quiet place. This proposal by this administration doesn’t bear well with me. There will be an observation deck. We don’t need tourists overlooking funerals. I’m just appalled.
We should all be appalled that the silent and dignified rows of white marble headstones at Arlington could be overshadowed by this Great Triumphal Arch. We should all be appalled that our current president is trying to impose such an un-American project on us.
But America in 2026 isn’t France in 1806. President Trump isn’t Emperor Napoleon. Here, the people rule.
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