Washington, D.C
Trump shares rendering of massive stone monument for DC to mark America’s 250th birthday
Call it the Arc de Trump.
President Trump posted an architect’s rendering of a huge triumphal arch to mark the nation’s 250th birthday – and his biggest change yet to the capital’s skyline.
The stone arch would be constructed just across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial — soaring above that memorial’s 99-foot height — and add a major new element to DC’s public architecture.
The online sketch depicts a massive monument that bears a strong resemblance to the Washington Square Park arch in Manhattan and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The stone monument features carved wreaths, two huge eagles facing East, and a golden winged angel brandishing a scepter.
The sketch is by architect Nicolas Leo Charbonneau, a partner at Harrison Design whose Sacred Architecture Studio features church designs.
“He’s an extremely talented classical architect,” a source familiar with the project told The Post. “His business is mainly in sacred architecture, but he’s truly a classical architect not just some guy who’s copying and pasting columns.”
The first inkling of Trump’s latest building plans to transform Washington came to light with a small-scale model in the Oval Office. AFP posted images of the design model that was atop the president’s desk Thursday.
Only now is the extent of the preparation for the project coming to the fore, as Trump looks to fill 2026 with celebratory events including a Mixed Martial Arts fight to be hosted at the White House.
The idea for the arch marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence came in an article by Catesby Leigh published weeks before Trump took office, according to the source.
The architecture critic called for a temporary arch, and pointed to the structure that marked Washington’s first inauguration, as well as the grandiose tradition dating back to the Romans.
Information wasn’t available on the cost, the timeline for construction, or who would pay for it. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The arch would go on undeveloped land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery inside a grass-covered traffic circle.
On its other side would be Arlington House, the Custis family mansion built as a memorial to George Washington.
It would hardly be the only new mark Trump is putting on the city.
Construction has already begun on a 90,000-square foot structure to house a 25,000-square foot ballroom that connects to the East Wing of the White House.
That structure is set to be larger than the 55,000 square foot executive residence.
Trump, who sold his towering DC hotel at the end of his first term, has overseen the installation of a pair of 88-foot flag poles north and south of the White House.
And he has gone on a design spree, redecorating the Oval Office and installing a multitude of gold finishings.
He has also brought up new art and artifacts from the White House collection to redesign the Cabinet Room, while installing white paving stones in the Rose Garden.
Other Trump projects include “Garden of Heroes” that Trump has ordered be built, along with new orders intended to maintain a classical stamp on federal buildings and reconsider some of the brutalist ones from the 20th Century.
Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan delivers the keynote address at the IMF Statistical Forum/Statistics for Policy Making in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2014. Greenspan died on Monday at age 100.
Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
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Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan delivers the keynote address at the IMF Statistical Forum/Statistics for Policy Making in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2014. Greenspan died on Monday at age 100.
Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
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Alan Greenspan, who steered the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, through some of the longest economic booms in U.S. history, has died. Greenspan died Monday at his home in Washington. He was 100.
Greenspan was the rare celebrity among central bankers, lionized for his economic stewardship in the 1990s. At a time when it seemed every barbershop had a television tuned to the stock market channel, ordinary Americans hung on the Fed chairman’s every word.
His reputation was tarnished, however, by the global financial crisis which struck a decade later.
Greenspan liked to write speeches in the bathtub, but it was his listeners who were sometimes left feeling underwater by the unfamiliar dialect known as “Fedspeak.”
Greenspan later acknowledged that he would deliberately garble his syntax to avoid saying anything that might move financial markets.
A notorious exception came in 1996, when Greenspan seemed to suggest that stock prices might be getting ahead of themselves.
“How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset prices,” he asked during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.
The warning that exuberant investors might not be quite rational sent temporary shivers through global stock markets. But Greenspan’s own stock continued to climb.
Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testifies before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1999.
Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images
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Fed Chair Alan Greenspan testifies before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1999.
Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images
Greenspan dabbled in jazz
He was married to NBC news anchor Andrea Mitchell, who anounced his death in a statement, and the two made a somewhat unlikely power couple. Comedian Jay Leno once joked during a White House Correspondents Association dinner that Mitchell, not then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, was married to “the most powerful man in the world.”
Greenspan was a talented jazz musician who studied clarinet and saxophone at Juilliard. But it was economics that made him a rock star and a symbol of the widely-shared prosperity at the end of the 20th century.
A master of monetary policy, Greenspan led the central bank under four different presidents, beginning in 1987.
Much of his tenure was marked by falling unemployment. Traditionally, central bankers respond to low unemployment by raising interest rates to ward off inflation. But Greenspan broke with that tradition and kept borrowing costs low.
“He was willing to watch and wait as the unemployment rate drifted lower and lower and lower and lower, and we still had no inflation,” recalled Princeton economist Alan Blinder, who served under Greenspan on the Fed’s governing board.
Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and his wife television journalist Andrea Mitchell attend a reception with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2012.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
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Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and his wife television journalist Andrea Mitchell attend a reception with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2012.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Greenspan oversaw an economic boom
Greenspan’s gamble with low rates paid off, and the economy kept booming for a decade, although critics argue his easy-money policies also helped inflate the dot-com bubble and later fueled the subprime mortgage meltdown.
In addition to low interest rates, Greenspan pursued a light touch on regulation, refusing to use the Fed’s powers to crack down on risky lending. His libertarian philosophy was shaped in part by the novelist Ayn Rand.
Greenspan had been a member of Rand’s inner circle, contributing chapters to her book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. When Greenspan joined the Ford administration as an economic adviser, Rand attended his swearing-in ceremony.
“Greenspan said that Ayn Rand put the moral foundation under capitalism for him,” said Rand’s biographer, Anne Heller.
Greenspan believed bankers didn’t need heavy-handed regulation because their own self-interest would prevent them from taking undue risks. Only after risky banking helped trigger the global financial crisis in 2008 — two years after he left the Fed — would Greenspan sheepishly admit that he’d been wrong.
“I was shocked because I had going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well,” Greenspan told a congressional committee investigating the financial meltdown.
Then-President Bill Clinton talks with then-Fed Chair Greenspan during the receiving line at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31, 1999.
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Then-President Bill Clinton talks with then-Fed Chair Greenspan during the receiving line at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31, 1999.
Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images
Greenspan long advocated for a light regulatory touch
The idea that bankers will sometimes take dangerous risks if they’re allowed to should not have come as a surprise to Greenspan, however.
Decades earlier, he’d played a bit part in the savings-and-loan crisis, which was a kind of dress rehearsal for the 2008 financial crisis.
As a private economist in the 1980s, Greenspan provided a testimonial for what he called “seasoned and expert” management at Lincoln Savings and Loan, in an effort to ward of regulation of the thrift.
Lincoln later collapsed, costing taxpayers billions. And its boss, Charles Keating, went to prison for fraud.
Economist Vincent Reinhart said it took courage for Greenspan to acknowledge, however belatedly, that self-interest is not always enough to protect taxpayers and investors from the risky behavior of bankers.
“For Alan Greenspan to say, ‘Well, maybe markets don’t always get it right,’ is a reflection on his entire career, not just his tenure at the Fed,” Reinhart said.
Ultimately, Greenspan’s will be remembered as both a maestro of monetary policy and a reluctant regulator. His legacy is shaped by the boom he fostered, and by the bust he failed to prevent.
John Ydstie contributed to this report.
Felony warning issued as arrests reported at Reflecting Pool
Federal officials are warning visitors that taking paint chips, debris or other materials from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool could lead to felony charges as crews continue cleaning up a major algae bloom that has turned the landmark’s water bright green.
WASHINGTON – Federal officials are warning visitors that taking paint chips, debris or other materials from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool could lead to felony charges as crews continue cleaning up a major algae bloom that has turned the landmark’s water bright green.
The warning comes after authorities reported multiple arrests Saturday involving people accused of removing material from the Reflecting Pool.
Algae, paint problems plague Reflecting Pool
What we know:
While officials have not released the exact number of arrests or identified those taken into custody, law enforcement agencies said anyone caught taking paint chips or debris from the site could face serious criminal penalties.
Visitors have reported seeing blue paint chips floating in the water as cleanup crews use mobile draining machines to remove algae and restore the pool. The unusual appearance of the Reflecting Pool has attracted large crowds to the National Mall in recent days, according to previous FOX 5 D.C. reporting.
President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that work on the Reflecting Pool would begin immediately and claimed several arrests had been made in connection with what he described as deliberate sabotage of the site.
Authorities have not publicly detailed the specific charges filed in the reported arrests. However, federal officials warned that removing government property from the Reflecting Pool could result in felony charges, and prosecutors could pursue more serious offenses if evidence shows anyone intentionally contaminated the water or caused additional damage.
READ MORE: Reflecting Pool looks ‘like vomit,’ visitors say; crews continue cleaning job
“If there are more serious products that are put into the Reflecting Pool to create more algae or a bigger problem, then we’ll consider more serious charges,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told Fox News. “But make no mistake, making D.C. beautiful is a priority and if you damage, vandalize or do anything to impact something like the Reflecting Pool, you can be prosecuted.”
What’s next:
The Reflecting Pool remains under active cleanup as officials investigate the cause of the algae bloom, according to the president.
According to federal contract data, a more extensive renovation, including potentially draining the pool again, could cost more than $14 million.
The Source: Information from FOX 5 D.C. reporting, President Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and other federal officials.
Washington, D.C
Jeanine Pirro vows DC Reflecting Pool vandals will be ‘prosecuted to the fullest extent’ | Fox News Video
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro joins ‘The Sunday Briefing’ to discuss vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the broader issue of crime in the nation’s capital.
: U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro joins Peter Doocy to discuss the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism after a $14 million renovation. Pirro addresses President Trump’s accusations against ABC reporter Jonathan Karl for tampering with the pool. She emphasizes Trump’s commitment to making D.C. safe and beautiful by prosecuting all violations of law, including minor crimes, to foster respect.
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