Vietnam veteran Shaun Byrnes served his country through war, diplomacy, and decades of sacrifice. So when he learned a 250-foot monument — bypassing Congress entirely — was planned directly between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, his reaction was not pride. It was fury.
“I was stunned,” Byrnes said in court filings. He called the proposed structure “a massive expression of domination” over sacred ground.
What Trump Is Building — and Where
In October 2025, President Trump unveiled plans for what the White House calls the “Independence Arch” — a towering triumphal arch to be built at Memorial Circle, situated between the Lincoln Memorial and the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, where over 400,000 U.S. service members are buried.
At 250 feet tall, the structure would become the largest triumphal arch on Earth — roughly two and a half times taller than the Lincoln Memorial. Inspired by Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, renderings show it would feature gold “One Nation Under God” lettering, a Lady Liberty statue at its peak, and two 24-foot bronze eagles. Trump wants it completed by July 4, 2026 — America’s 250th birthday.
On April 16, the Commission of Fine Arts gave an initial design nod. But the project still requires approvals from the National Capital Planning Commission and other federal agencies before construction can move forward.
“It’s a Monument to a Man”
That’s not the veterans’ main objection. Their objection is to the entire approach.
Three Vietnam War veterans — Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, and Jon Gunderson — along with architectural historian Calder Loth, filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, represented by the government watchdog group Public Citizen. The Hill They argue the administration cannot legally proceed without congressional authorization.
“The Arch is planned to be erected directly on the axis between Arlington House and the Lincoln Memorial,” the group states in their 19-page lawsuit. “It will block historically significant reciprocal views between those two memorials that were consciously designed and that have existed for nearly a century.” MS NOW
The location sits within Lady Bird Johnson Park — a National Park Service site that falls under “Area I” of the Commemorative Works Act, which carries strict congressional oversight requirements. “What has happened here is that the president has decided that he can just unilaterally go ahead and erect this monument,” said Wendy Liu, the veterans’ attorney. “No person is above the law, including the president.” WUSA9
Gunderson put the emotional weight plainly. “These monuments in Arlington and Vietnam — they honor the common soldier. They don’t honor a man. They don’t honor a general on horseback. They honor the country.”
The View That Could Disappear Forever
For these veterans, this isn’t abstract. The sight line between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House — preserved for nearly a century — carries deep symbolic weight. It was deliberately designed after the Civil War to represent national healing and unity.
The veterans and historian warn that with the arch in place, Arlington House would no longer be visible from the Lincoln Memorial, and the view of the Lincoln Memorial from Arlington House would be obscured — “disrupting the historic and symbolic link between the two.” Courthouse News Service
The lawsuit also raised a safety concern: the arch’s height could pose a hazard to air traffic into and out of Ronald Reagan National Airport, requiring FAA review. MS NOW
What We Know

Who: Three Vietnam veterans and one architectural historian, represented by Public Citizen
What: A federal lawsuit filed in D.C. seeking to halt construction of the 250-foot “Independence Arch”
Where: Memorial Circle, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery
Why it’s legally contested: Critics argue it violates the Commemorative Works Act, which requires congressional approval for monuments in this protected zone
Design: Gold lettering, Lady Liberty statue, two 24-foot eagles; modeled after Paris’s Arc de Triomphe but 100 feet taller
Timeline: Trump wants completion by July 4, 2026; lawsuit is currently ongoing

Why This Matters Beyond Washington
Americans across the political spectrum have long held Arlington National Cemetery as sacred ground — a place that belongs not to any president, but to every soldier who gave their life in service. The debate here cuts deeper than aesthetics or politics.
Gunderson noted that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was also controversial when first proposed in the early 1980s — but it went through congressional review and became one of D.C.’s most-visited and most-beloved monuments. Military.com That’s the process these veterans say they wanted. That’s the process they say was denied.
The White House maintains the arch is a celebration, not a provocation. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the structure “will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike.” WUSA9
But for the men who filed this lawsuit — men who gave years to a country that asked everything of them — the question isn’t whether America deserves a monument.
The question is whether the 400,000 heroes buried at Arlington deserve to rest somewhere no single president’s ambition can cast a shadow.