While the US marks defeating a king, Trump makes Washington his own

As the US marks freedom from a king, Donald Trump makes Washington DC his own Sun 14 Jun 2026 at 5:10am Washington DC is a city designed to be experienced in a certain way. The position of the sandstone White House, the cast-iron-domed Capitol building and the towering Washington Memorial were set out by an architect who wrote to George Washington, explaining he was designing a very grand city. Now, the capital is steeped in symbolism and meaning. The Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River is a connection between symbols of America's North and South and the union that survived the Civil War. The Lincoln Memorial looks across its Reflecting Pools to the Washington Memorial. Washington, as the father of the government. Lincoln, keeping watch as its preserver. The National Mall connects them all, and beyond that, the views of these monuments carry meaning too. Changing them, or proposing other buildings on federal land, typically requires consultation with the public and cultural experts, a review process, and in some cases, Congressional approval. But during his second term in office, Trump is changing the landscape and altering how it can be experienced. Near the memorials to Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, and the fallen American soldiers buried in Arlington Cemetery, Trump plans to build a towering triumphal arch, something historically associated with imperial victory. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools have changed colour, washed in "American flag blue". The White House looks set to get a new ballroom at the expense of the East Wing. The walls of the Oval Office have become a scrapbook canvas, with gold ornaments and portraits in ornate frames jockeying for space. A public golf course along the Potomac River is being converted into a championship course. While a local park could become a "National Garden of American Heroes" and see statues erected. The John F. Kennedy Center was renamed the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center. Lafayette Park was also closed for an upgrade, and what was the nearby Black Lives Matter Plaza was dismantled earlier this term. Project by project, Donald Trump is altering the US capital, disrupting views and design that, in some cases, date back more than two centuries. There are legal challenges, but for many projects, work is well underway. The No Kings protests will return to American streets this weekend — aimed at the president and, once again, held to coincide with his birthday. And while the United States will mark 250 years of independence from King George III next month, Washington DC is being remade in one man's image. City embodies US Constitution After the US Constitution was signed and came into effect in 1789, the new federation needed a capital. In the American Revolution, George Washington fought the British beside French engineer-architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and after their victory, the men set about building a city befitting the new nation. Ever the surveyor, Washington chose the spot at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers for the site of the new capital. "L'Enfant found a high spot, which he called a pedestal awaiting a monument," said Judy Feldman, historian and chair of the National Mall Coalition, one of the organisations legally challenging Donald Trump's ballroom. "The highest spot goes to the seat of representational government" and that became the site of the Capitol building, she said. "Another rise a mile away goes to the seat of the president, the White House." And the axis where they meet is where the Washington Monument stands. Between the three monuments was the land that became the National Mall — open space dedicated to the pursuit of public rest and enjoyment. Dr Feldman said the mall was "a physical embodiment in landscape and open space and architecture of the US Constitution". By 1922, the Lincoln Memorial had opened, and the western end of the mall had been extended. The changes, at that time, were in keeping with the thinking of L'Enfant. The mall evolved alongside America's evolution. But it's the symbolism baked into the planning that took place at that time that advocates fear is now under threat from Trump's triumphal arch proposal. The triumphal arch In ancient Rome, triumphal arches were built to celebrate the expansion of the empire. After conquering another community, the returning general would pass through an arch as he re-entered the city, captive slaves at his sides, stolen gold in his chariot. Donald Trump calls his proposal an "independence arch" but scholars of history warn it has typically been men who morph into dictators who have erected them. When Trump was asked by a CBS reporter who the 76-metre-high triumphal arch in the middle of modern-day Washington DC was for exactly, he said: "Me." "It will be like the one in Paris, but to be honest with you, it blows it away," Trump said. In recent weeks, a design has been approved by the federal Commission of Fine Arts — a body now run by Trump political allies. The design would be taller than the Lincoln Memorial and would place the structure at the junction between the Potomac River and Arlington National Cemetery. Perhaps most notably, it would sit at the Virginia end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. During the Civil War, the river was the dividing line between the confederacy in Virginia and the heart of the union. When it was built, the bridge became a symbol of the unity that prevailed. With Arlington National Cemetery nearby, the area is also a solemn place of remembrance. Trump's proposed arch would interrupt that, according to a legal challenge. Three Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian have launched legal action, claiming the arch is a "vanity project" that would obstruct "a line of sight that was designed to represent the unification of the nation following the Civil War and that has existed for nearly a century". Arlington House is now a memorial to Robert E. Lee, a confederate general of the South. Lincoln was, of course, the driving political force behind abolishing slavery, and the memorials to these men have a literal bridge between them. "It means we are essentially annihilating Lincoln [and] his role," Dr Feldman said. "It's absolutely significant. What are we celebrating when we place [an arch] in between the unifying element of the Civil War? "Does it mean we want to go back to that division? Are we celebrating somehow the separation between Americans with different beliefs and different sides on the war?" There is also an effort from lawmakers to stop the arch's construction via a proposed bill called the Arlington National Cemetery Viewshed Protection Act. Democratic congressional representatives are behind the bill, including Don Beyer from Vermont, who said the arch would "desecrate" the hallowed space "to build a monument to Donald Trump's ego". The mounting legal challenges On July 4, the United States will celebrate 250 years of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It is happening on Donald Trump's watch and just after his own 80th birthday this weekend. The two celebrations have brought renewed focus to the capital and some of the projects that Trump's team want completed this year. Most are facing legal challenges. As well as the triumphal arch, there are challenges to the new White House ballroom, the championship golf course, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools' colour change and changes to the painting of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. A judge ruled in favour of a legal challenge against changes to the Kennedy Center, meaning Trump's name is now supposed to be removed from its marble facade. Plans to close the building for renovations have also been blocked. On the South Lawn of the White House, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Octagon has been installed. The cage will host a fight timed to take place on the president's birthday and as part of the Freedom 250 celebrations. There is a lawsuit attempting to block that event, too. Complainants are typically seeking injunctions to halt the work so consultation and approvals can be undertaken, but in some of these cases, it's too late. In April, the president announced he would be changing the colour of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools. On June 4, in a post to Truth Social, he announced that the work was due to be completed that day. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pools visually connect Lincoln to Washington. They reflect these two historical pillars of the nation and the natural world around them. The pools were built in the 1920s and have been the host to massive protest rallies and major events in American history, including Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech in 1963. Trump has changed the colour of the pools to a bright shade of blue. In court documents, complainants sought a restraining order against the Department of the Interior to halt changes to the pools, noting the new blue paint replaces "the serene, character-defining grey basin" and said the work would "deface an iconic American landmark". The pools do need maintenance and generally are expensive to upgrade. The Obama administration spent more than $30 million attempting to deal with a stagnant water issue that dated back to construction. The legal bid to halt the work had asked for more time to challenge it and alleged the government was breaking the law by bypassing procedures and denying experts their statutory rights to participate in the process of altering historic properties. "The Reflecting Pool is water. It's not intended to be a swimming pool with a diving board and stairs and umbrellas," Dr Feldman said. "The one thing that you can always hope for is that it's reversible, and this will be reversible. "Though [destruction of] the East Wing, of course, cannot be undone." In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt ordered the east and west wings of the White House to be constructed. The West Wing would be for the president's staff, while the east side of the building would be a reception space for guests, and would later house the offices of the first lady. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt added a second story to the East Wing and an underground bomb shelter. In 2025, Trump ordered the East Wing to be demolished to make way for a ballroom. As part of the Trump-era renovations, the East Wing could be replaced by a massive ballroom that artist impressions show will overshadow the White House and block a view of it from Pennsylvania Avenue. The project has faced considerable legal challenges, with one judge ordering all work to cease before the administration appealed and work was allowed to resume. US District Judge Richard Leon, who had halted the work, said it was his belief that the project required congressional approval. But the president's appeal argued there was now a national security risk, and the White House was exposed as the site sat in a pile of rubble. Part of the argument from Trump's team involves an obscure use of legal statute, according to Georgetown Law's Emeritus Professor Peter Byrne. There is a statute that authorises spending on a yearly basis "for White House maintenance and upkeep, which includes the word 'improvements'," he explained. "The Trump administration is taking the view … that 'improvements' includes the construction of a ballroom that's sort of larger than the White House. "So we'll see how that argument goes." The case could end up in the Supreme Court, and while nothing can be done now to save the East Wing, any future ruling could dictate what gets built in its place and could specify processes that must be followed to arrive at that plan. From a historical point of view, Dr Feldman believes anything added to the White House, "should defer to the most important building" not detract from it. "The notion that the priority on the mall is to build a ballroom is just country-club thinking. It's a private vision," Dr Feldman said. A president's preference The Trump-ification of Washington DC is perhaps nowhere more pronounced than at the White House. While the demolition of the East Wing has garnered significant public interest, the very Mar-a-Lago makeover of the building has happened in smaller spaces, too. In the Oval Office, the wallpaper has been squeezed out of view as gold drips from every available piece of wall space. There are more flags, a portrait of Ronald Reagan, and, reportedly, a button that summons a Diet Coke. A Swedish ivy plant that had been photographed in the Oval Office as far back as the JFK administration notably disappeared from the fireplace mantle last year. And on the outside of the office, in cursive font, 'The Oval Office' adorns the wall. As every president is entitled — and budgeted — to do, Donald Trump has brought his personal style with him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Within the bounds of the White House and its residence, presidents typically change carpets, artwork and furniture, and install personal effects. But Trump has taken a great deal of liberty, permanently altering the White House and scattering other nods to his time in office across the city. For the caretakers and preservers of America's cultural history, it's all happened too quickly and without enough time or process for the meaning that is baked into so much of the city's past to be present in this new era, too. "It's just a private vision of a real estate mogul who sees open space and says, 'We can build something there',"Dr Feldman said. "It's this grandiose thinking that has nothing to do with who we are as Americans. "History is not fond, ultimately, of people like this." The scale and style of the 3D models are approximate. The ballroom model is based on designs released by the National Planning Commission in February. The arch model uses designs approved by the US Commission of Fine Arts. Sun 14 Jun 2026 at 5:10am - Share options - Copy link - X (formerly Twitter)