President Donald Trump wants a massive arch in Washington, D.C., and it now looks like he might get it: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Thursday said excavation work would begin within the next two weeks.

But critics say he’s wasting time and money on the vanity project ― and it comes as the nation faces both an affordability crisis and an unpopular war that’s dragged on for more than six months with no end in sight.

Burgum wrote on X that the massive arch will be built at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

He called the site “a barren traffic circle” but ― using very Trumpian language ― said the arch would be “one of the Great Pieces of American Architecture” and that, when compared to other arches, this would be “the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all!”

Trump holds a model of the arch he wants built on October 15, 2025.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump has spent much of his time in the Oval Office obsessing over decor and architecture.

“If you looked at a chart of his mind share — this I will say about getting into his mind: Seventy percent of it would be on his renovations,” New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told “The Ezra Klein Show” earlier this summer.

Construction continues on a new East Wing, including Trump's White House ballroom, as well as a new helipad for Marine One on the South Lawn, on Sept. 1, 2026.

SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

Trump has attempted to rebrand the Kennedy Center with his own name as part of a makeover, which is currently facing legal challenges, and ordered the botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool earlier this year.

Most of his critics didn’t love any of those projects.

And they certainly don’t love this latest one:

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