OMM Newsroom
Nine members of the family of former US President John F. Kennedy have joined a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s plan to build a triumphal arch in Washington, according to the BBC.
The plaintiffs argue that the 250-foot (76-metre) structure would obstruct views of Kennedy’s grave and the graves of thousands of veterans at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The White House said it was “unfortunate” that some members of the Kennedy family had joined litigation against an arch “intended to honor our heroes who rest in Arlington Cemetery”.
“The judiciary should not be abused to politicize a structure designed to unite our nation,” White House spokesman Davis R. Ingle said in a statement to the BBC.
“We will continue making the case for this beautiful and fitting monument and are confident we will be fully vindicated as this litigation proceeds,” he said.
The project was approved last week by the National Capital Planning Commission. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan subsequently ordered a 14-day pause before any work could begin while the litigation proceeds.
The Kennedy family filed its complaint as part of a joint lawsuit brought by Virginia and Washington, DC, seeking to stop construction. The plaintiffs say the arch, if built at the cemetery’s entrance, would damage “historically significant sightlines”.
The plaintiffs include seven children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, their grandson, former Democratic congressman Joe Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy Jr., a son of Ted Kennedy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump administration official who leads the Department of Health and Human Services, is not among them.
The family’s motion seeks to intervene in two other lawsuits filed by conservationists and veterans who are also seeking to halt construction.
The Kennedys say the arch would be a “permanent denigration” of the gravesites, and that the family’s descendants “would never again be able to appreciate both sites as they always have before, and as the Kennedy family always intended”.
They argue the structure “will permanently cast shadows over and damage historically significant sightlines to the existing gravesites and memorials established in the Kennedy family’s honor” at the cemetery.
The complaint says the National Park Service and the Interior Department authorised construction on 5 November 2026 without the required congressional approval. The arch, referred to as the “Arc de Trump”, is part of Trump’s plans to reshape the capital and is intended to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.
Last year, Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center, a Washington, DC, cultural institution named in honour of John F. Kennedy. His name remained on the building’s facade for six months before the addition was ruled illegal and removed.
