President Donald Trump is calling for his proposed “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery to be used as a “top grade military complex” that would include snipers and drone storage. But he’s getting a strong pushback from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), herself a U.S. Army veteran who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War.
In a strongly worded Friday, September 25 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford, the 58-year-old Duckworth wrote, “The FAA and DoD (U.S. Department of Defense) must reject this foolhardy plan and instead focus on increasing the safety of the airspace.”
CBS News’ Kris Van Cleave explains, “The FAA determined, last week, that the 250-foot arch, which is being constructed near Arlington National Cemetery, poses no hazard to flights coming into and departing from Reagan Airport. The letter was exclusively obtained by CBS News. (Duckworth) called Mr. Trump’s announcement, made in a Truth Social post over the weekend, ‘bizarre, unhinged early morning social media rants.'”
The “triumphal arch” is among the many proposed makeover projects that Trump has been pursuing in the Washinton, DC area. Trump’s other proposals range from a lavish White House ballroom to renovations on the Kennedy Center.
“In the letter sent Friday,” Van Cleave reports, “Duckworth, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, took Trump administration officials to task for ‘wasting time, energy and taxpayer dollars on yet another Trump vanity project.’ She called it ‘particularly outrageous’ after what she described as the ‘joint failure’ of the FAA and Defense Department ‘to effectively implement corrective actions that were recommended’ by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) following the January 2025 midair collision near Reagan Airport that killed 67 people.”
Van Cleave adds, “The NTSB made 52 safety recommendations following the collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet that was landing at Reagan Airport.”
Duckworth didn’t hold back in the letter, telling Hegseth and Bedford, “It is disturbing to see Federal officials devote enormous attention to an unnecessary, proposed structure while the NTSB and the public are still demanding action on recommendations intended to prevent another catastrophic collision in our skies. The American people cannot afford to stand witness to Trump’s risky plan to place a 250-foot structure along a busy approach path, especially if he follows through on plans to station snipers on the arch and fly drones … in the already congested airspace.”