U.S. President Donald Trump holds a model of an arch monument during a ballroom dinner in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
President Donald Trump is still pushing to build his own version of France's Arc de Triomphe in Washington D.C., and he may have found some cash to do it.
NOTUS reported on Tuesday that Trump has decided to take $15 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities to use for his own purposes
The president shared his plans with the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday, and among the demands was $2 million for the Trump arch, as well as with $13 million in matching grants. The spending plan is the first time Trump has publicly admitted that taxpayer dollars will fund his pet projects in Washington.
When speaking to donors, Trump claimed that the archway would be "fully funded," implying that there were leftover funds from his personal White House ballroom project that he could use to build the structure, NOTUS previously reported.
"Trump has been fixated on the archway and other construction and remodeling projects since he took office, even as he oversees a war in the Middle East and political headaches ahead of the midterm elections," wrote NOTUS reporter Mark Alfred.
He carried around a printed rendering of the arch during the annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday, the report said. While driving to his golf course in Virginia over the weekend, the report noted that Trump's motorcade slowed as he rounded the area where he hopes the arch can be built.
A group of Vietnam Veterans has already come out against the arch being on the grounds of the cemetery, which is supposed to be a non-partisan place to honor their sacrifices. They announced they were suing the administration in February.
When speaking to Politico about the project last year, Trump said it would be under construction “sometime in the next two months.” It has been four, and nothing has begun.
Thus far, Trump's monuments to himself go beyond the arch. Trump has paved over the West Wing Rose Garden, bulldozed First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's Rose Garden, leveled the East Wing and east colonade of the White House, ripped out the Thomas Jefferson-era Tennessee flagstone in the west colonade and changed the name of the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts to include his name above Kennedy's.
Trump has also uprooted several historic trees, taken over all of the public golf courses in Washington, added golden embellishments all over the White House, renovated the bathroom attached to the Lincoln Bedroom, and is currently plotting to turn the historic Treaty Room into a 12th bedroom for the White House. In celebration of the 250th birthday of America, Trump is putting himself on a three-inch golden coin.
Trump has asked aides to figure out a way to make his birthday a national holiday, put his face on Mount Rushmore and wants a statue of himself in Washington D.C. Those projects have not yet begun.
In renderings of the Trump presidential museum released by son Eric Trump, there is a multi-story golden statue of a flattering version of Trump.