By Evaristo Lara
According to the recently published National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) spending plan, the construction of the Independence Arch promoted by President Donald Trump would be paid for with taxpayer money.
The memorial planned to be built in Arlington, Virginia, would already have $2 million in special initiative funds allocated and another $13 million in matching funds.
This amount of money was approved since September of last year by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Additionally, President Donald Trump noted last year that private funds left over from the expansion of the white house ballroom to build the Independence Arch.
In fact, in October a model was presented where up to three proposals were shown, of which the head of the nation chose the largest size, as he intends for the work to surpass the Arc de Triomphe of France.
“It is the only city of great importance in the world that does not have a triumphal arch. And this one is going to surpass them all. The one that most people know is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. And I think ours is going to surpass it by far,” he said in December without revealing the full amount of the allocated budget.
The goal is for the architectural work to be built on the Arlington, Virginia side, near the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River, between the entrances to the National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
However, the idea is not as new as it seems, since in 1902, the National Park Service proposed a project, never materialized, to include a triumphal arch intended to honor Hiriam Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the nation and not new to the Union.
Although the new project aims to be identified as a symbol of national pride, Donald Trump’s detractors consider that it is not the most appropriate time to allocate millions of dollars to a monument, especially since the US economy is performing below the projected level.
Furthermore, with a lot of money invested in the war still ongoing against Iran, it is considered inappropriate to spend unnecessarily.
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