House Republican signals opposition to using military funds for Trump’s arch

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday that he thinks Pentagon funding should not be used toward the construction of President Trump’s triumphal arch.

Simpson told reporters Monday “there’s a lot of things that we need the military funding for — in fact, we’re short on military funding right now,” according to Politico.

Asked whether he thinks Pentagon funds should be used for it, he said, “If it was my choice, I wouldn’t put any of that money into the arch,” Politico reported.

Simpson’s remarks come after Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social the plans for the massive triumphal arch bridging Washington and Virginia will incorporate a “top grade military complex.”

“I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage,” Trump wrote.

The triumphal arch is intended to be a 250-foot-tall structure, which, if completed, would be the tallest such memorial in the world. It would tower over the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and would be taller than the world’s tallest arch, the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City.

It would be located along the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the symbolic representation of the reunified U.S., connecting the North and South following the Union victory that ended the Civil War in 1865.

Simpson said he hopes that if the White House decides to go ahead with the arch, “they would come to Congress and ask for an appropriation for it if they’re going to use appropriated dollars to do it,” according to Politico.