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
A Gold Star mom is lending her voice to the campaign against President Donald Trump's 25-story arch that will block the view of Arlington National Cemetery.
The group Vote Vets is launching a campaign to support the veterans and their families who are fighting to stop the arch being built in Memorial Circle, which sits at the entrance of the cemetery.
The administration has conceded that Trump's giant 250-foot arch would block the view of Arlington, but claimed that it would create a "new" view of Arlington for people standing from the observation deck of the structure.
That creates a problem for Karen Meredith, who lost her son, First Lt. Ken Ballard in Iraq in 2004. Ballard was a fourth-generation Army officer. He and thousands of others like him are buried at Arlington.
Funerals at Arlington are sacred, private moments honoring a family’s loss and a service member’s sacrifice. Tourists who insert themselves, either by approaching, filming, taking photographs or disrupting the ceremony, are breaking rules set out to give families their private moments to mourn their loss.
Trump's new arch, Meredith said, will allow tourists to watch funerals from the observation deck.
"For me, Arlington has been a nice quiet place," she said in the Vote Vets video. "We don't need tourists overlooking funerals. I'm just appalled."
Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton is another opposed to the arch. He explained that it will sit between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, blocking any view of the famous lines of white marble headstones.
Arlington was first established by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. His cottage in North Washington was on land where he could honor the soldiers by giving them a place to rest and be recognized, next to his own home. But as more and more soldiers were lost, Lincoln ran out of room on his land. It was then that he established Arlington, and soldiers have been buried there ever since.
Lincoln's memorial overlooks the land where he honored the soldiers who fought and died to keep America together. Charles A. Birnbaum, the founder and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, said that the arch will significantly alter that.
Gen. Eaton called Trump's arch "entirely inappropriate and borders on sacrilege to the men and women buried" there.
"Memorial. The use of that word is not an accident," he added.
"It will alter that hallowed ground and that feeling in association that everyone has when they experience the cemetery," said Birnbaum.
During his first term, Trump drew criticism for refusing to visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris, where Americans who died in World War I are buried. He was miffed that it was raining and, according to sources who spoke to The Atlantic, his hair would get messed up. Allegedly, Trump said the cemetery was “filled with losers.” The report further alleged that he called Marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers.”
He continues to deny the claim, but retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff at the time, confirmed he heard Trump blast the soldiers.
Birnbaum went on to quote Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., who addressed a proposal in 1916 to establish an arch at the end of Memorial Bridge. According to Olmsted, building that arch would be a “slap in the face to the Lincoln Memorial.” The U.S. dropped the plans after that.
Eaton was also bothered by the fact that Trump intends to do construction for 20 hours a day for three years to build the arch.
"Every weekday, someone is buried at Arlington National Cemetery," he said.
"If Trump thinks we'll be quiet about this proposed arch, he's wrong," said the Gold Star mother. She implored people to speak out about it.
The Commission will vote on Oct. 1
Some ground isn’t for building on.Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their families. A 250-foot arch, with a tourist observation deck, would go up at its entrance, changing that ground forever.
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— VoteVets (@votevets.org) September 8, 2026 at 11:12 AM