Trump's triumphal arch project in the District of Columbia and the 1901 McMillan Plan

Trump plans a majestic triumphal arch opposite the Lincoln Memorial, and a pedestrian bridge leading to it with statues of American presidents in niches, for the 250th anniversary of American independence, to be celebrated in 2026.

The project is grandiose and, naturally, designed to remain a monument to the Trump presidency. In a certain sense it would be a return to the so-called McMillan Plan of 1901, or the Plan of the Senate Park Commission, drawn up under President William McKinley and approved under Theodore Roosevelt. The plan envisaged a comprehensive reconstruction of the monumental core of the District of Columbia and the erection of an imposing triumphal arch, comparable to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Unfortunately, it all looks like yet another piece of paper architecture: it is hardly likely that the arch will be completed during the reign of Donald Fredovich. The Arc de Triomphe itself, raised in honour of the victory at Austerlitz, took 30 years to build, beginning with the laying of the foundation under Napoleon in 1806, reaching half its height by 1810 and being finally completed in 1836.

It has turned out rather strangely that a project for the 250th anniversary has been under discussion for only a year; in principle, one ought to have been thinking about it much earlier.