Ali: Trump's vanity arch is coming and it's no triumph
The article criticizes the planned construction of a 'Great Triumphal Arch' in Washington D.C., a project championed by Donald Trump. The author argues the monument is a vanity project that lacks historical justification and serves primarily to aggrandize the president.
Why it matters
It highlights ongoing debates regarding the use of public space and federal funds for monuments that reflect the political legacy of current leadership.
The president has called it an “arc.” Others, such as the rest of the English-speaking world, refer to it as an “arch.” Whatever you choose to call Donald Trump's latest vanity project, construction crews will soon break ground on the bigliest and most beautiful monument ever in the history of America, the Great Triumphal Arch. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made the announcement Thursday on social media: “After a very long wait (over 125 years!), we are preparing to start, over the next two-week period, the excavation work necessary for Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck,” he wrote.
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