President Donald Trump has been floating plans for a new arch monument at a heavily trafficked roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery.
Depicting a winged “Lady Liberty” flanked by two eagles, the monument — called “Independence Arch” in mock-ups but now known by the informal name “Arc de Trump” — would stand in a traffic circle on the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge, about a quarter mile from the Arlington Cemetery Metro station.
Trump displayed variously sized 3D models of the proposed arch at a dinner with donors in the White House’s East Room yesterday (Wednesday). The president has talked about constructing the arch in connection to celebrations honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence next year, according to CNN.
When CBS News asked who the arch would be for, however, Trump pointed at himself and told the outlet, “Me.”
A watercolor rendering that Trump posted on Truth Social last week depicts pedestrians walking under the arch to admire it up close. Despite several upgrades in 2020 meant to make the traffic circle safer for pedestrians and bicyclists there’s currently no safe way to do this.
Here’s Trump in his element we described this morning: showing off models as Master Builder in Chief
In this case, it’s the Arc de Trump planpic.twitter.com/79nZhtBdNm https://t.co/0RD3eDHnae
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 16, 2025
The roundabout connects Memorial Bridge, Arlington Blvd, Washington Blvd and Memorial Avenue, which leads into the cemetery. The National Park Service estimated in 2018 that about 62,000 vehicles crossed the bridge every day.
The closest parking spots are inside the National Cemetery.
While well known to commuters, the roundabout also receives heavy foot traffic. The Arlington side of Memorial Bridge sees an average of about 2,700 pedestrians and bicyclists each day, according to county data. It’s close to the Mount Vernon Trail and is part of the route in popular races like the Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run and the St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon.
The traffic circle, like nearby Roosevelt Island, is on federal land technically located in Ward 2 of D.C. It’s on a corridor between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery that contains several other monuments, including the Seabees Memorial and Military Women’s Memorial on the Arlington side.
Originally, Memorial Avenue was meant to be flanked by “numerous statues of American heroes,” according to a placard near the National Cemetery. In the early 20th century, city planners had their eye on building some kind of monument in what is now Memorial Circle, according to The Washington Post — although nothing ever came of the plans.
Trump discussed building the arch at a dinner with nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies, rewarding them for their pledged contributions to a massive new ballroom with a price tag now estimated at $250 million.
Among the companies that had representatives at the dinner, according to a White House official, were Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms and T-Mobile. The Adelson Family Foundation, founded by GOP mega-donors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, also had a presence there.
Oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, and crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were all on the guest list. The list of attendees was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Also attending the dinner were Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager from his 2024 reelection bid; Reince Priebus, a White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term; and Jason Miller, another longtime political adviser.
Trump showed off miniature models of the proposed arch in three sizes, although he acknowledged that the largest was his favorite.
“It’s going to be really beautiful,” Trump said.
