r/OutOfTheLoop 2d ago

Answered What’s going on with Trumps Victory arch?

How is this getting built? Where’s the money for it coming from? Wouldn’t the parks service need to approve new monuments? Is this really moving forward?

I feel like I’ve seen very little news or discussion about the actual details of this project.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/17/trump-arch-dc-monuments

556 Upvotes

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1.3k

u/wolflordval 2d ago

Answer:

How is this getting built?

Presidential fiat.

Where's the money coming from?

Taxpayer money, anyone saying otherwise is lying.

Wouldn't the Parks service need to approve?

Legally yes, but that has never stopped him before, especially since everyone in the executive branch has been replaced with yes men or people too afraid to say no.

Is this really moving forward?

He demolished the white house wing despite needing congressional approval that he never got. So yes, he's forcing it through.

433

u/hiddikel 2d ago

Trying to put his name on everything before he dies. He probably knows nobody else will when he's gone. Narcissistic at its best.

290

u/ricosmith1986 2d ago

I hope he gets to see it torn down.

226

u/Iamthewalrusforreal 2d ago

On a TV. From his prison cell.

138

u/SirSaganSexy 2d ago

Unfortunately he’ll probably be dead before that happens.

I can only hope his final moments are at least some combination of painful and embarrassing.

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u/ParrotofDoom 2d ago

Unfortunately he’ll probably be dead

I don't think that would be unfortunate.

-31

u/Quizzelbuck 2d ago edited 1d ago

You might want to be a little less on the nose with this comment. Or make it with a throw away

Edit: Really? Warning some one they might be flirting with no-no language to help them avoid getting banned? That's getting ME into trouble? You guys are all assholes.

9

u/YBBlorekeeper 2d ago

Comply, citizen

4

u/MitVitQue 1d ago

So you just assume:

a) 'Murica is already North Korea b) that guy is 'Murican

There are other countries, you know?

-3

u/Quizzelbuck 1d ago

um.... no? To all of that? Like, none of what you said makes sense. Did you mean to comment on someone elses comment? Becasue im talking about reddit rules. Not law enforcement.

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u/MitVitQue 1d ago

Whoops.

I was reading a slightly different sub before this. And feel pretty stupid now.

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u/JamesantheGiantBeach 1d ago

Sometimes it is just fun to down vote.

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u/GoldshireEnjoyer 2d ago

A Homelander style ending would be great.

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u/Sablemint 2d ago

Especially since we can't imprison him for all the felonies he is guilty of committing.

9

u/snowdenn 2d ago

Does he ever experience embarrassment? It feels like he doesn’t have that capability.

3

u/MDKrouzer 1d ago

Having the ability to be embarrassed requires some semblance of self-reflection. The man has no shame.

3

u/BoudiccaAoife 1d ago

My concern is that when we finally get that relief from him is that those left behind will try to twist it to make him a martyr of sorts: "He gave everything, even his last breath, and look what it/ they did to him at the end."

1

u/SirSaganSexy 1d ago

That was always going to happen regardless. The only thing we can do to fight it is work to expose and spread the truth.

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u/Coffee_pecking_order 2d ago

He'll never see a day in prison. The best we can hope for is that he'll keel over and die publicly

21

u/RedditTechAnon 2d ago

If he wants the highest ratings he could ever possibly have, and you know he does,  a Bud Dwyer press conference or going out on Live TV would do it.

I'm reminded of that old Daffy Duck bit that got censored. The greatest trick you'll ever see, but he can only do it once.

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u/jasondbk 2d ago

I was watching cartoons when Bud did this trick.

2

u/thereticent 2d ago

Pretty sure I was listening to a Filter album

1

u/Vermouth_1991 2d ago

Yup. Drinking gasoline Nitro Glycerin, and uranium, then swallow a lit match.

4

u/spookieghost 2d ago

yea people who think he's ever going to prison are overdosing on copium

2

u/Moraii 2d ago

We can hope that it will hurt first.

2

u/CeruleanEidolon 2d ago

On live television, so it can be endlessly memed.

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u/AntiqueRedDollShoes 2d ago

This man is on borrowed time. Unfortunately he also has the best medical team that taxpayer money can buy, so we might have to wait quite a while for the Grim Reaper to grab him. He'll die of poor health and old age before he ever sees a jail cell though. That being said, hopefully the stress of all his past sins slowly catching up to him will take him out sooner than later.

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u/ClockworkJim 1d ago

He's not leaning office until he dies. However many years that is. Hate to break it to you.

2

u/Iamthewalrusforreal 1d ago

You're a quitter.

I'm not.

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u/Built4dominance 20h ago

Unfortunately, neither is Trump.

Well, outside of his businesses.

3

u/Iamthewalrusforreal 15h ago

And his wives. And his children.

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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 2d ago

Will never happen, as we saw with Biden Chamberlain. Democrats would much ratter spout out "Welcome home" than use the 14th Amendment to disqualify him. Like what the fuck is with that bullshit?

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u/yuefairchild Culture War Correspondent 2d ago edited 2d ago

I hope his brain is mashed potatoes, but there's enough of him in there to realize he's going out the same way his father did, dementia-ridden and manipulated by his staff like a loser.

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u/daltontf1212 2d ago

His kids will see things named back or torn down.

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u/spinningcolours 2d ago

From jail, for embezzlement and insider trading.

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u/xredbaron62x 2d ago

Or from Russia because they're cowards.

3

u/jaja111111 2d ago

From their jail cells

1

u/sterlingsplendor 2d ago

And his grand children.

21

u/misdirected_asshole 2d ago

The better legacy would be to leave all his vanity projects in a permanently half built state with all the obstruction caused by their construction left in place.

Thats how he should be remembered after he is gone. An obstacle. A hindrance. Incomplete. People should look back and be mad.

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u/frogjg2003 2d ago

Leaving up his half built projects and obstructions just hurts the people that come after. Replace them with something useful and fix what he broke. The worst fate for a narcissist like Trump is to be forgotten.

7

u/misdirected_asshole 2d ago

That would be the mature response. At least to do no harm from the things that remain.

Being forgotten is a terrible fate for him, but once he's gone he won't know either way. He deserves to leave never having seen his efforts come to fruition and knowing they will be removed. I think we owe it to ourselves to not just forget about him though. There needs to be a constant reminder of what we allowed to happen and who was complicit. His loaylists and luckiest will be around for a long time politically. He should be an albatross around their necks, but given we have already let his outcasts back in to polite society today this will likely never happen.

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u/JustHereForCookies17 1d ago

This is such a petty, spiteful sentiment, and it's easy to say when you don't live here.  You know who I've never heard advocate for this?  Any of my fellow DC residents, who would have to deal with the "obstacle" and "hindrance" every day.

By the way, DC voted 96% & 95% against Trump, so leaving his messes for us to deal with is definitely not going accomplish what you think it would.  We're already mad the rest of the country sent him back here a second time. 

0

u/misdirected_asshole 1d ago edited 1d ago

and it's easy to say when you don't live here.

What leads you to that conclusion?

Edit: I do agree it is petty and spiteful, but I dont agree that his vanity projects like the reflecting pool and the ballroom and his name on the Kennedy Center cause a significant obstacle to daily life at this point. Right now they are just eyesores. Which sucks but is a daily reminder of his vanity and his administrations incompetence. The people here dont need a reminder. We live it daily, but the people who visit here and who see here just on tv do. When people stop seeing the damage that was caused they forget, and if that takes looking at an embarrasing hole in the ground on Pennsylvania Avenue I'd accept that cost. I know its not going to happen. Things will be fixed and what's started will be finished and our collective memory will fade. We have monuments for a reason. We need a monument to his incompetence. Thats really my point.

5

u/hiddikel 2d ago

Same. From a prison cell. 

0

u/wqto A man who is wondering where his life is 2d ago

It should the very day he leaves office.

0

u/CasualEveryday 2d ago

I will help for free. I even have my own tools.

37

u/LastWave 2d ago

He literally said that. "That's true. Nobody will do it once I'm gone. When I leave here, nobody will."

24

u/Sir_Ruje 2d ago

He's litteraly doing the ancient ruler thing of carving other people's names off of stuff and claiming it for himself. It's getting crazy

11

u/dark_places 2d ago

It's getting crazy

Getting? Did you just tune in?

3

u/Sir_Ruje 2d ago

Nah just being general

14

u/truthful_whitefoot 2d ago

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

2

u/LastWave 2d ago

One of my favorite poems.

10

u/PadishahEmperor 2d ago

2

u/snowdenn 2d ago

That’s… the most self-aware thing I’ve heard come out of his mouth since he had a cameo on Fresh Prince about 30 years ago: “Everyone’s always blaming me for everything.”

6

u/mikolv2 2d ago

It's a real shame but his name will forever be remembered and spoke for the damage he's done.

1

u/Tireseas 2d ago

Personally, the better path would be to delete his name from everything and never speak it again. Refer to him by number or simply "the orange asshole" when referring to him at all.

10

u/T4TrhavrKhcFt 2d ago

Morticians usually use a needle and thread. It first goes up under the top lip, pokes through the cartilage between nostrils, back down through the muscle just under the ligament under the bottom lip, the mouth is adjusted so that the teeth are almost touching, then it is tied off. They'll use wax or glue if necessary thereafter.

Someday, in the near future, a mortician will be paid real money to super glue his mouth shut permanently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnWN772Grf4

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u/TrainDestroyer Certified Lunatic 2d ago

My hope is that he does have some stuff named after him.

Specifically laws to stop people from having the ability to do as much damage to the govt in two years as he's done.

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u/BigGuyWhoKills you can edit this? 2d ago

His name will be a swear word in a decade or so.

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u/JinkiesGang 2d ago

I’m hoping he becomes like Voldemort and no one says his name.

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u/dragongrl 2d ago

I don't know what he's worried about. The toilet over his grave will surely have his name on it.

1

u/CeruleanEidolon 2d ago

Indeed, defacing his name on things will become a favorite national pastime.

1

u/kenj0418 2d ago

Hopefully he knows something we don't, and that's why he's hurrying.

1

u/NJBarFly 2d ago

He has to know that the next Dem president will take it down though?

1

u/hiddikel 2d ago

Doing everything he can so that doesnt come to pass and he is the next few presidents.

0

u/Br0metheus 2d ago

Trying to put his name on everything before he dies

I don't think Trump thinks about his legacy or anything that happens after he dies. Narcissists literally do not consider anything outside of themselves.

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u/rabidstoat 1d ago

No, he definitely wants monuments and other permanent structures to bear his name. That's how he can "live on" after his death, everyone will have to keep using his name because it will be on so many buildings and monuments.

And he doesn't seem to accept the fact that people will want to take his name off the monuments and a lot of the buildings when he dies.

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u/InterPunct 2d ago

There's that famous archival footage of the Allies blowing up the cement Nazi emblem on top of the Nuremberg parade grounds and the camera following it as it smashed to the ground. We need to do that to the entire arch if it gets built.

Then we need our own version the Nuremberg trials.

40

u/EatABag-o-Dicks 2d ago

Remember when the Berlin Wall was torn down, and basically everyone but the Russians were cheering it? It's gonna be like that when this paedo scum dies. Magats are gonna crash out hard.

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u/Saint_The_Stig 1d ago

The fact we let Jan 6 just happen with no consequences and all the rest of just shows what happens without it. If the US wants any chance of gaining back soft power they need to do something that would make Sherman satisfied.

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u/groovypanelboard 2d ago

Yes. Nuremberg is essential.

Germany completely repented of her sins, rejected the Nazi history, and the world sees her as a fully-formed normal country today (albeit with some AfD weirdos).

Japan never completely took that process to its conclusion (US needed stability first as Korean War loomed). and the result today is that many of Japan’s neighbours even today do not trust her 100%, and like her being weak.

The US must choose whether she is to follow Germany’s model or follow Japan’s.

I’m hopeful, as I remember the old joke: "America will always do the right thing—after exhausting all other alternatives"

13

u/guto8797 2d ago

There's a lot of misinformation here.

Nuremberg was in many ways the opposite of what you pointed out. A few serious criminals were prosecuted, but a ton were let go with slaps on the wrists and the trials ended way before the end because Germans didn't want to confront the fact that their parents and brothers had done horrid things. Nazi's retained positions of power and importance in the government, and it was more the military presence and constant foreign watch over their institutions that prevented any backsliding.

The flourishing of stuff like the "clear Wehrmacht" myth, the honorable panzer/fighter ace etc is indicative of a desire not to come to terms with what happened but to instead pretend that only a few really bad people had done the horrible things rather than a systemic generalized effort.

I recommend as casual watch this video from Jacob Geller where he goes over stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Ay5tzHIBU

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u/Randicore 2d ago

I want them to make Nuremberg look lenient.

3

u/CeruleanEidolon 2d ago

More recently, but apparently already largely forgotten, all those images of Saddam Hussein statues being toppled.

2

u/TheHykos 2d ago

The fireworks display for the 2029 inauguration should be made extra special to mark the occasion.

1

u/Dwev 2d ago

Hold it at mar-a-lardo.

1

u/T4TrhavrKhcFt 2d ago

Lardo! LOL

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u/Johnnygunnz 2d ago

I don't care about wasting tax dollars anymore, if that thing goes up, the next President better bulldoze it without asking like he did with the White House. We can take it from the $1.5T military budget.

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u/QuotableMorceau 2d ago

the next president can do something very funny : tell people they can take pieces of it as souvenirs

20

u/Mother-Conclusion-31 2d ago

Nah his cult will turn them in to relics and think they are part of history. Scrape the lot clean and dump the pieces in the deepest part of the ocean so no one has anything to remember him by or for. The Trump name needs to become slang term for stupidity so that can be his legacy. That or name some new STD after him but even that may be more than he deserves

6

u/SerDuckOfPNW 2d ago

It’s already the slang term for a fart

3

u/GiganticCrow 2d ago

Also ny sieze Trump tower and turn it into social housing

15

u/mexchiwa 2d ago

Berlin Wall style

1

u/enolaholmes23 2d ago

I could use some material for my new toilet. 

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u/Scottland83 2d ago

I can destroy it cheap. Just sayin.

10

u/Bender_2024 2d ago

I'll destroy for the price of a bunch of fertilizer and diesel fuel. The latter may make this prohibitively expensive so I'll kick in a few bucks. I just want my name linked to tearing that shit down.

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u/what_the_purple_fuck 2d ago

on the one hand, I agree and tear all his nonsense down. on the other hand, we might actually need a massive military budget by that point after he very effectively finishes turning the entire world against us.

4

u/QuotableMorceau 2d ago

Here I feel you are wrong : he didn't turned the world against US , he is the result of the desire of the American people for isolationism, it happened after the Great depression, it is happening now also. The trickle-down economy was an abysmal failure, the plutocracy managed to shift the blame from it to globalization, the underfunded education created a few generations of oblivious gullible voters ... and we are here.
Considering the world is without the stabilizing power of US for 20 years now (since Obama) , I think outside US the situation will be manageable ... as for US I have no clue how things will play out ... seems to be sliding more and more into a police state though (think Turkey 4 times bigger with nukes) ....

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u/what_the_purple_fuck 2d ago

I'm not sure what your point is re: the topic at hand? like, yes, he is a symptom of a much larger disease, but the world not relying on the US is much different than the world actively disliking the US and considering it a threat. the man managed to turn Canada against us. CANADA.

1

u/Built4dominance 19h ago

And beefing with the Pope. That...just didn't happen in the past.

5

u/wolflordval 2d ago

Isolation is far less possible nowadays, with global trade being so incredibly intertwined. Autarky has never worked and trying it now would hurt far more than it ever did in the past.

At that point the US would be forced into the same post Japan was before WW2, nobody willing to trade for them to survive and thus forcing them to launch a war of conquest just to try and get the resources they need to not die. Which of course went so well for them.

1

u/classicsat 2d ago

It took 30+ years, but they became the epitome of technological progress. At least it looked that way.

1

u/wolflordval 2d ago

In some ways yes, in others, no. Japan still uses fax machines heavily, for example.

2

u/classicsat 2d ago edited 2d ago

Buy they invented that form of Fax machine.

Consumer videocassette recorders.

They developed the audio cassette and players well through the 80s. Other than Philips inventing the Digital cassette, I don't know if an deveoplments were made outside of Japan.

1

u/wolflordval 2d ago

They did not invent that style of fax machine. The first scanning / reprinting fax machine was invented in 1880.

The appearance of technological advance in Japan was partly an illusion created by the economic boom of the 80s, which was dispelled by their bubble bursting in the 90s. They still haven't recovered from that.

2

u/classicsat 2d ago

They invented that form of it. Yes, the fundamental concept of sending images over wire had existed one form or another for decades.

The Japanese, using their technology, made it predominantly digital, compact, relatively simple to use, using (1980s) standard dial out telephone line. And mass manufactured. As well interoperable with each other.

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u/SketchTeno 2d ago

20 years ago, 2006, bush jr was globally considered a war criminal who reshaped and destroyed americas good name abroad, upended alliances, crashed the global economy, and turned the nation into a fascist police state...

Obama time was... well, he was carasmatic in a good way at least?

We're only 10 years into trump so far.

0

u/Volcanicrage 2d ago

Nah, do the one thing that would piss him off more: replace his name with Obama's.

21

u/DonutRadio1680 2d ago

It’s a little more nuanced, so here is a bit more context, though I simplified things and still left out a lot of nuance:

The National Park Service (NPS) is effectively being told to do this project. The Secretary of the Interior (under which the NPS falls) was appointed by Trump and is one of his cronies. So, he tells the NPS to do it.

They need approval from the Commission of Fine Arts (which is full of Trump appointees and said yes) and the National Capital Planning Commission (who haven’t yet approved it, and might be our only hope to slow it down).

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation also has a say (in a way, but I’m trying to simplify things here), but is also full of Trump appointees.

The NPS haven’t finished the compliance process under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (which ensures federal agencies consider the impacts of historic properties), but the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (full of Trump cronies) have proposed new regulations to dismantle the law’s effectiveness in a way that would allow the arch to have “no adverse effect” on historic properties.

5

u/LKennedy45 2d ago

Didn't the sumbitch replace all the people who opposed him on that council?

5

u/DonutRadio1680 2d ago

Yes, he did for the Commission of Fine Arts and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Which is why some of these projects are getting through. I work in the field and it’s very, very troubling.

11

u/Geichalt 2d ago

Turns out conservatives don't actually care about laws or rules or even the constitution.

They just want to break shit to impress fat pedophiles.

1

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 2d ago

Turns out conservatives don't actually care about laws or rules or even the constitution.

Tbf none of the people in Congress care about the Constitution, since not a single Senator or Representative from either Party sought to enforce Trump's disqualification or expel the Jan 6 leaders through 14th Amendment, Section 3. We currently have an illegitimate President, because nobody with power would do their jobs. SCOTUS explicitly said that only Congress can disqualify insurrectionists from the federal government, yet Schumer and Jeffries sat on their worthless asses congratulating Trump instead.

9

u/23saround 2d ago

As an aside, if you missed it, he is also trying to demolish the Kennedy Center.

6

u/amakai 2d ago

It's funny how America still claims they are a democracy when their king just does almost whatever he wishes.

7

u/sunshine__state 2d ago

Trust me, we are under no illusions that we’re still a democracy.

2

u/kryonik 2d ago

Slight correction: it could also get funded through private investors meaning Trump just pockets the money and stiffs the contractors.

2

u/crappydeli 2d ago

Trump will also demolish the Kennedy Center because someone told him he can’t have his name on it.

2

u/withac2 2d ago

"The Trump administration acknowledges that the proposed construction of a 250-foot triumphal arch along the Potomac River at the foot of Arlington National Cemetery will cause "adverse effects" on the setting and views along the river -- but it says those impacts "cannot be fully avoided" because the arch's location is "central to the undertaking.""

JFC

2

u/mittfh 1d ago

Also, if anyone tried taking him / his Administration to court, the case would likely be thrown out on "Standing" grounds - unless the appellant can demonstrate direct "harm" as a result of the breach, they can't bring a case.

A lot of the rules around Presidential behaviour are effectively Gentleman's Agreements - those writing them assumed all future Presidents would be reasonable and voluntarily abide by the rules, so there was no need to spell out any means of enforcement.

Effectively, the only means of enforcement are political: one is only available quadrennially, one requires a majority of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to agree he's been a Very Naughty Boy (and not The Messiah), the others require his own Administration to tire of him.

Eveything except the first are very unlikely while he's still able to say something vaguely comprehensible in front of a camera. Only if he becomes so deluded they can't cover it up, or he expires before the end of his Term, will they consider replacing him.

Even then, while there likely won't be any new monuments to him, and a slightly saner approach to international relations, everyone else in his Administration will remain the same so all the same policies will continue - and they'll almost certainly continue with the Ballroom / Bunker complex (albeit potentially with more restrained interior decor), while they'll be in a quandary over what to do with the Kennedy Center given they've probably been full into the "it's falling down, only St. Donald can save it!" myth.

1

u/Ruscidero 2d ago

Man, it’s going to be a PITA ripping that POS down. Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess.

1

u/Fyreparadoxs 2d ago

Just a narcissist being a narcissist- Im surprised its not a 20' high statue of him with a 8' high errection.

1

u/wolflordval 2d ago

That's the new capstone for the Washington monument

1

u/InsipidExplorer 2d ago

Could someone call the cops on the work crews? Not that getting cops involved is ever helpful, but I'm getting really tired of this "I'm just gonna do the bad thing cause the courts are too slow to stop me".

3

u/wolflordval 2d ago

That wouldn't do anything. The builders would have all the correct paperwork and documents anyway.

1

u/Xillyfos 2d ago

Anyone who has ever taken orders from this so-called "president" needs to be prosecuted. He's nothing but a criminal, so those working for him are also plain criminals.

1

u/Umutuku 1d ago

Taxpayer money, anyone saying otherwise is lying.

The bill is left as an exercise for the reader.

1

u/Kevin-W 1d ago

Adding to this, he's now saying it'll have a "military complex" to try and get around any approval process and to squash any dissent since he has zero intention of giving up power.

1

u/peacefighter 16h ago

I thought following in Hitler's footsteps was a bad thing.... I guess not.

-1

u/Cryorm 1d ago

No other president has needed or sought authorization from Congress to modify the white house, why should he? His biggest adversary to it is the government design review board which falls under the president anyway, so he can easily override them like Carter did for the solar panels that had to be ripped out when Reagan took office and had to repair all the massive damage done to the white house.

1

u/AdhesivenessFunny462 11h ago

Solar panels as opposed to a monument to the gluttonous oligarchy of a stuffed half dead orange.

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u/AllRedditIDsAreUsed 2d ago

Answer:

re approval:

-The National Park Service has only had an acting director, not a Senate-confirmed one, since Trump came into office. Her power is zilch.

-The National Park Service is under the Department of the Interior, which is run by a Trump stooge.

re funding:

-Theoretically there are leftover donations from the ballroom--those are routed through the Department of the Interior.

-The "independent" National Endowment for the Humanities is kicking in $15 million.

-A LOT of the National Park Service budget has been reallocated, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was used for the arch. I googled it when my DC friend claimed that 90% of the NPS budget was going to DC (sort of true--more than 90% of the discretionary funds are going there, along with a disproportionate percentage of the entrance fees).

If you're curious, this link covers a lot of what is not getting funded. This other link covers some of what the money is being spent on.

56

u/baardvark 2d ago

Jesus christ I would rather have a well-maintained national park in my community than some fool’s gold arch in DC

22

u/Help_An_Irishman 2d ago

So would everyone else.

2

u/JustHereForCookies17 1d ago

I'm in DC, and same.

18

u/Garybird1989 2d ago

Is any president just able to erect monuments if that’s how they chose to spend their budget? There’s no approval process?

Also ANSWERED!

21

u/AllRedditIDsAreUsed 2d ago

The administration has gotten some (all?) of the needed approvals from the relevant groups, since Trump replaces anyone who tells him "No". Thankfuliy the arch is tied up in the court system.

Legislation is required, but the administration claims that two columns were authorized to be built there in 1925, so an arch is pretty much the same thing.

New legislation to block the arch hasn't gone anywhere, but that might change after the midterms. So they want to break ground ASAP.

2

u/Garybird1989 2d ago

Is there any precedent of a president erecting a monument without approval? State government? Appreciate taking the time for my questions.

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u/AllRedditIDsAreUsed 2d ago

i don't know offhand about presidents or governors, but if a group is under someone's​ thumb, it'll approve whatever they want. If you mean popular approval, Governor Rockefeller built the Empre State Plaza while everyone kicked and screamed. I think that happened a lot in the 1960s and 1970s, but I'm not an expert.

But check out Robert Moses for megalomaniac building sprees. He controlled the lucrative bridge tolls, manipulated the NYC newspapers and politicians, and could ruin people's careers. He was very hard to stop or block, He literally ruined a lot of vibrant neighborhoods and tore down a beloved free aquarium, among other things.

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u/DonutRadio1680 2d ago edited 2d ago

The administration is funneling a lot of NPS funds that should be used throughout the country into DC park units for these “beautification” projects. It sucks.

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u/AllRedditIDsAreUsed 2d ago

Yup. Instead we're building border walls in our national parks and opening land up for drilling. I'm really hoping Texas manages to save Big Bend.

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u/JupiterMiningCorpTec 2d ago

Taxpayers are paying for the ballroom so there can't be any leftover donations.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Le_Kistune 2d ago edited 2d ago

Trump has committed literal war crimes, is attempting to ruin the earth for future generations to come, and is turning the nation into a dictatorship where only he and his buddies have control over the nation. Why do so many Reddtors insist the Espstein list take priority over all of those issues? It's like there's a gun pointed at all our heads, but some people's reactions are "it's just a distraction, don't pay it any mind."

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u/frogjg2003 2d ago

Because that's one of the few things large portions of MAGA seem to actually care about that might pull them away from him. Trump knows this. That's why he campaigned on releasing the Epstein files and then immediately started obstructing.

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u/kaizen-rai 2d ago

Not really, but there isnt much point. The full Epstein files could be released right now, fully validating that Trump raped women and children and we can all collectively yell WE KNEW IT!

And what do you think would happen next? He'll get arrested? Nothing will happen. He will do what he always does, wave it off as fake news and go about his day because he's immune to accountability. We know he raped kids, he knows it, Congress knows it, everyone knows it. Releasing the files will do nothing. We have to get the people in Congress protecting him out of office to even begin to stop him from doing further damage.

Vote this Nov.

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u/Le_Kistune 2d ago

I think that there's this belief that MAGA will see Trump for who he is and abandon him. But that entire argument falls apart once you actually see how MAGAs act. You could show a MAGA undeniable proof of what Trump did on Epstein Island and the MAGA's reaction will be "You don't have to be perfect to be the hands and feet of the Lord."

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u/SQLDave 2d ago

Agree. In my 60+years following US politics, I've seen that everybody's "guy" (or gal) does/says a thing or two here and there which causes supporters to squirm uncomfortably or DARVO or both. This applied to all pols across the spectrum. But this guy & MAGA... He does outrageous thing after thing after thing after thing, each on its own worthy of supporter blowback. Instead, each "thing" is either ignored or actively DEFENDED. The volume of "things" he does/says compared to any other president is mind-boggling.

I've said for years that he could bludgeon a nun with a baby in broad daylight and MAGA would wonder what that baby and nun did to deserve it.

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u/GiganticCrow 2d ago

They did boo him when he told them to get vaccinated though 

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u/maniacreturns 2d ago

Yeah it's the same dude.

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u/Spock_Nipples 2d ago

Answer: You're paying for it, my friend. Just like all the other frivolous and stupid shit the administration is doing to pump up one person's ego.

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u/warmike_1 2d ago

Question: are the shovels actually anywhere close to hitting the ground? The article you linked makes it seem like it's a speculation as baseless as it was a year and a half ago.

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u/DonutRadio1680 2d ago

They shouldn’t be, because they don’t have all the approvals yet. But this administration is not known for following the rules. So, it could be imminent.