Trump Says His 250-Foot Triumphal Arch Will Now Be a 'Top Grade Military Complex' That Can Launch 'Large Numbers of Drones' and Put Snipers on the Roof, 'at the Strong Request of the United States Military.' It Sits in the Landing Path for Reagan National.

President Trump announced Sunday that the 250-foot triumphal arch he wants to build at the Virginia end of the Memorial Bridge will double as a "top grade Military Complex," complete with drone storage, sniper positions and an ammunition store. He said the conversion came "at the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes," and made the announcement on Truth Social with no accompanying detail from the Pentagon or the White House.

The arch, modeled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, is planned for a traffic circle between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, across the Potomac from the National Mall. As originally described, it would be clad in granite, topped by three golden statues and fitted with an observation deck. Under the new plan, Trump wrote, the structure will "house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas," and will hold "large quantities of sniper ammunition." He repeated a claim he has made before: "Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH."

The site is directly under the approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is why the Federal Aviation Administration spent weeks reviewing the design before determining on Friday that the arch itself "would not pose a hazard to aircraft." That review did not contemplate drones. Rep. Don Beyer, the Virginia Democrat whose district includes the site, said Sunday that "putting a drone launching site directly in the landing path for DCA is a stupid, dangerous, and unworkable idea." Multiple people working with the administration on the project told NBC News the military announcement caught them by surprise. The Pentagon and the White House declined to elaborate.

The project has moved quickly through Washington's review bodies. The Commission of Fine Arts approved it in April, the National Capital Planning Commission signed off on preliminary site and building plans in July, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier this month that excavation would begin within two weeks, with crews working 20 hours a day. A group of Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian have sued, arguing the arch would desecrate the approach to Arlington's hallowed ground and that the president has no authority to build it without an act of Congress. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered the administration to give 48 hours' notice before doing anything at the site beyond an archaeological assessment.

It is the second time Trump has attached a national-security rationale to a construction project of his own choosing. The White House ballroom was justified the same way, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation's lawsuit against it was thrown out in August when the Supreme Court ruled the group lacked standing. Whether the arch's new mission survives contact with the FAA, the courts and the Army's own force-protection planners is now the open question. What is not in question is that a monument pitched as a gift to the nation's 250th birthday has become, in the president's own description, a fortified position overlooking the capital.