The White House plans to spend $15 million in National Endowment for the Humanities funds to finance the construction of the massive archway President Donald Trump hopes to build across from the Lincoln Memorial, according to a spending plan shared in the Office of Management and Budget database on Tuesday.
The NEH spending plan includes $2 million reserved for the arch, along with $13 million worth of matching grants. It confirms for the first time the president’s intention to use taxpayer dollars to at least partially fund his project. Trump previously told a group of donors that the archway was fully funded, floating the idea that unused funds for his White House ballroom project could be utilized.
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.
During an Easter event at the White House Monday, Trump carried with him a printed rendering of the archway. The day prior, his motorcade slowed as it made its way to his golf course in Virginia when rounding the area where the arch is to be built.
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“Every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, they literally say, something is supposed to be here,” Trump told donors in October.
The president has his eye on reshaping both of the White House and fixtures of the federal government in the D.C. area. He has paved over the Rose Garden, decorated the Oval Office with countless golden fixtures and demolished the East Wing in order to make room for a massive ballroom.
He has added his name to Washington fixtures including the Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute of Peace, moved to take over its public golf courses and is now pursuing his archway ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.
A group of Vietnam veterans objected to the prospect of a 250-foot archway at the site, suing the Trump administration in February and arguing the structure would increase traffic and block views of Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump told Politico in December that construction would begin “sometime in the next two months.” As of April, construction has yet to begin.
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