Hegseth swears Trump's 'Great Triumphal Arch' is going to be a 'generational national defense opportunity' as DOJ says his testimony in court is out of the question

Left inset: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responds to a reporter’s question before the start of a meeting with visiting Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles at the Pentagon, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). Right inset: An artistic rendering of the arch-to-be shared by Secretary Doug Burgum (Interior Department). Background: President Donald Trump holds a picture of the proposed Triumphal Arch on the South Lawn during the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 6, 2026 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images).

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says President Donald Trump’s “Great Triumphal Arch” must be built because it’s a “generational national defense opportunity” and will help “defend the Homeland” from drones and “evolving threats,” but don’t expect him to answer any questions in court about it, according to federal prosecutors.

“It will be utilized as a dual-purpose structure: a major national monument that also incorporates military utility to support Homeland defense,” Hegseth wrote in a declaration submitted Wednesday, as the government is facing a lawsuit from three Vietnam War veterans and a historic preservationist over the construction of the arch. 

“The new construction of the Arch — with its strategic location overlooking major national sites and frequented by national officials — offers an opportunity to situate state-of-the-art C-UAS defense capacities in the heart of the NCR [National Capital Region],” Hegseth said. “Its height and strategic location provide enhanced lines of sight for both sensors and personnel, which is critical to C-UAS and other security operations.”

The Justice Department announced Wednesday in court filings that Hegseth, despite his support, would be “unavailable to testify” at an upcoming preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for Friday.

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The Vietnam vets and preservationists who are suing the government asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan last week to issue a preliminary injunction by Nov. 4 — no later than one day before “construction may start” — so the project doesn’t become a ballroom-like “fait accompli.”

Represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, plaintiffs Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, Jon Gundersen and architectural historian Calder Loth said in an 18-page memorandum last Thursday that the Trump administration is “rapidly” moving toward constructing the arch and the National Park Service (NPS) signaled in a notice that construction may begin at Memorial Circle as soon as Nov. 5.

The plaintiffs want Chutkan to issue an injunction.

“Defendants have barreled ahead, doing site testing, drawing architectural plans, and seeking approvals from commissions populated by friends of the administration. Yet, throughout this time, Defendants have failed to obtain (or even to seek) approval from the one body that, by law, must authorize the project: Congress,” the memo said.

The plaintiffs argue that they “regularly visit the area” to “honor the service” of “comrades-in-arms who are buried” at Arlington National Cemetery and the arch “will inflict profound harm […] by interfering with a symbolic landscape that holds great personal meaning,” according to their complaint. The arch will destroy an “unobstructed view” of a sight line “designed to represent the unification of the Nation following the Civil War,” the complaint says.

To support their case that the defendants’ “plans are unlawful,” the plaintiffs have said that NPS’ “own assessments” have “revealed that the arch will have significant adverse effects on more than 40 historical sites” — and yet they “have not faltered in their commitment to build the arch.”

Their filing last week targeted the “sole source of legal authority” cited for constructing the arch for America’s 250th anniversary, saying that it can’t be right that the Act of Feb. 24, 1925, to build the Arlington Memorial Bridge “authorize[d] a massive monumental arch to commemorate a national anniversary that, at the time of the statute’s enactment, lay more than a century in the future[.]”

“The bridge was completed over ninety years ago, in accordance with the statutory requirements. And while plans from 1924 included two columns (but not an arch), the Commission that Congress authorized to design the bridge removed them, and the project was completed without them,” the plaintiffs said. “Defendants’ contention that the statute authorizes limitless initiation of new Executive projects, at whatever cost, indefinitely into the future, is entirely untethered from the Act’s text.”

Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee who presided over special counsel Jack Smith’s since-dismissed Jan. 6 prosecution of then-candidate Trump, now faces a request to stop the Trump administration as it begins to “blaze ahead.”

“This Court should enter a preliminary injunction blocking Defendants from beginning construction on Memorial Circle in the hope that they can render the arch a fait accompli before this Court has made a final determination whether Defendants’ project is unlawful,” the memo added, referring to the Supreme Court’s ballroom decision as a “cautionary tale.”

Federal prosecutors argue in court filings that “an injunction would forestall the opportunity for these significant national security benefits and prohibit the government from taking important steps to mitigate an ever-growing threat to the Nation’s capital.” They claimed Wednesday that the “significant national defense concerns” brought up by Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in declarations “plainly outweigh the plaintiffs’ asserted aesthetic interests.”

“The security features will be fully integrated into the existing design,” Mullin wrote in his declaration.

The Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans for America First and several other veterans organizations filed a brief Wednesday saying they supported the Trump administration’s position and construction of the arch. The groups claimed the veterans who are suing lack legal standing and do not represent all veterans.

“This case has been fully briefed on the merits three times,” the DOJ said Wednesday in an opposition filing. “Plaintiffs now bring yet another breathless emergency motion seeking preliminary injunctive relief to forestall construction of an arch on Memorial Circle. But Plaintiffs’ complaint has grown only weaker with time.”

Matt Naham contributed to this report. 

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