Inside the raging legal fight over Trump’s 'triumphal arch'

Back in 1910, Congress passed the Height of Buildings Act — which was signed into law by GOP President William Howard Taft, amended the earlier Height of Buildings Act of 1899, and limited how tall buildings could be in the District of Columbia. Now, in 2026, that law is playing a major role in the legal battle over the 250-foot "triumphal arch" being proposed by President Donald Trump.

According to New York Times reporters Luke Broadwater, Emily Badger and Junho Lee reporters, the National Capital Planning Commission is examining the law's specifics and how they apply to Trump's proposal.

"For decades, the planning commission reviewing construction projects in Washington has stood by the principle that the federal law limiting the height of buildings in the capital applies to federal projects," Broadwater, Badger and Lee report in the Times. "But now that President Trump has proposed building a giant triumphal arch, the commission, which is led by Trump allies, is considering a different, more lenient view. On Thursday, (July 9), the National Capital Planning Commission will consider a new interpretation of the 1910 Height of Buildings Act: that it was never meant to apply to federal projects, and certainly not to Mr. Trump's 250-foot arch."

The reporters add, "The act 'does not reference federal buildings,' the Interior Department wrote in a memo submitted to the panel, arguing that 'Congress did not intend' for the law to be interpreted the way the commission had read it for nearly 90 years."

If the National Capital Planning Commission does change its interpretation of the Height of Buildings Act, according to the Times journalists, it "would likely prompt a new legal fight."

The arch, if it comes about, would be built near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. And a group of Vietnam veterans is suing to stop the project — which they say would obstruct the views between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's home.

"Democrats have said that the project violates three federal laws, including the Commemorative Works Act, which governs monuments on federal land in Washington, and a 1912 law that says buildings or structures 'shall not be erected' on federal land in the capital 'without express authority of Congress,'" according to the Times reporters. "But the Height of Buildings Act, which generally does not allow buildings more than 130 feet tall in Washington, has become the latest complication…. There was no locally elected government in Washington when the Height Act was passed in 1910. The city was run by federally appointed commissioners, and by Congress. Washington gained its current measure of local governance only in the 1970s."

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