Trump Is Now Invoking National Security for Both D.C. Arch and White House Ballroom
Wehle says that decades-long accumulation of authority has brought the Executive Branch close to treating the President as “above the law.”
“Trump’s authority is at its apex when it can be tied to the Commander-in-Chief power,” Wehle says.
Republicans control both the House and Senate, she says, and Trump could have attempted to get Congressional approval for both the ballroom and arch projects by rallying his own party’s support—but he didn’t.
Instead, the Administration has opted to add military justification to its efforts, she says, which “makes it more convenient for the court to reinterpret the Constitution around unaccountable, unlimited, concentrated power in one person.”
Can Trump’s triumphal arch also function as a military site?
Trump has not given much information regarding what military use the arch would have, but George Washington University law professor Sara Bronin, who is also an architect, tells TIME that she is not aware of any other structures that double as commemorative monuments and military infrastructure.
