The surreal reason this national monument is now under guard

Apart from the absurdity of Donald Trump’s suddenly announced desire to turn a self-aggrandizing triumphal arch in Washington into a bristling military complex, the announcement itself went a long way towards explaining why Trump-positive news is so hollow a call.

Of course, the announcement that the 250-foot arch overshadowing the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery would now house “drones and snipers” to qualify as a national security proposal came in a Trump Truth Social post.

No questions asked, none answered. Nor were they answered at the downsized press conference in the Oval Office the next day, when press pool coverage was pulled after Trump had banned three news outlets from stepping foot into the White House.

I suppose this is Trump’s idea of “positive” news coverage. An announcement without details about who sees need for a new military complex inside Washington, with snipers perhaps to hold off an invasion from Virginia, without explanation about why or how it changes the design needs, the staffing, the cost or even the potential new dangers of a drone-facility in the flight path of Reagan National Airport.

Despite Trump’s best efforts, however, within a day there were lots of questions, including whether Trump had made up the entire request for a military facility. Reporters calling Pentagon sources found no one who knew about the supposed need for snipers in Washington and they expressed surprise at having learned about the plan changes through the news media, not some official war-gaming proposal.

Nor, even now, are there White House explanations for how many drones, or the size of drones, or even the internal layout of the arch to provide the supposed storage space for weapons storage that the proposal now is supposed to provide. There are no descriptions of how a militarized arch would be populated with snipers, who would oversee the new facility, or why the arch was a better repository for ammo than, say, the existing military facility less than a mile away or at the Pentagon itself, just over the bridge.

For that matter, there is not even a posting on the White House’s website to address the issues.

Military Complex Raises Issues

Indeed, The Washington Post noted that the decision to push for the arch as a military complex rather than a tourist facility, as had been the case for a year, is even complicating the required federal reviews because the change raises new legal and safety concerns.

Congress has responsibility for the construction on the site a mile away from the White House.

Historic preservationists participating in a required federal review process said they could not move forward until the administration can clarify the plans for the arch. Administration officials had pressured Washington and Virginia preservation officials to reach a memorandum of understanding last week to allow development to proceed, but the announcement has blown away whatever had been on the table.

Aviation experts warned that using drones at the planned arch could pose risks in the region’s crowded airspace, which last year saw a crash between a military helicopter and a landing passenger jet.

Military and safety experts have questioned the implications of storing ammunition in the middle of a heavily used traffic circle. There were questions about whether tourists could still enterthe arch as previously planned.

Trump’s insistence that his proposals for immigration, war and peace, tariffs and economics, education, environment and climate are all wonderful and ruined only by “negative” news coverage. It seems a lot closer to the truth to say that Trump’s ideas arrive by thunderbolt without sufficient seasoning and that by answering questions about what he intends, he gets the chance to spell out what might change – regardless of being “positive” or “negative.”

The polls tell us that his decisions about war with Iran, the resulting price hikes, the effect of tariffs, the excesses of a mass deportation campaign and more have proven unpopular. To blame that on how they are depicted in the news as opposed to their practical effect seems, um, bogus.

It is more likely that Trump snatched this military complex idea from thin air because he could see opposition to a massive, self-referential, Arch de Triomphe knock-off as having trouble getting the required support from Congress. Cloaking it in military camo may make it more palatable but raises new issues.

In any case, welcome to Trump News – some assembly and context required.

Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.