By Ronn Easton
I spent two years, six months, nine days, and four hours in the United States Army. My first and only deployment was to Vietnam, where I served as an armorer in the 5th Battalion of the 42d Artillery. Back then, I stood up and raised my right hand to swear an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And if you go back and read that oath, you will see there is no expiration date.
Donald Trump did not serve. He took five draft deferments, claiming “bone spurs,” to avoid service in Vietnam. Later, he called avoiding STDs his “personal Vietnam.” He has insulted POWs, called service members “suckers” and “losers,” ordered that disabled veterans be shielded from public view, and asked of the dead at Arlington, “What was in it for them?” He has nothing but contempt for the military, and those of us who serve in it.
After seeing France’s Arc de Triomphe during his first term, Trump recently announced his own version, which would dominate Memorial Circle just outside the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, across the river from Washington DC. Naturally, it is a massive, gaudy, horrid abomination of a structure, and—at 250 feet—would tower over most of the other monuments in the area.
For me, Arlington is hallowed ground. I’ve been there 10 times. Whenever I visit, I go see the Vietnam Wall first, where the names of more than 58,000 of my fallen brothers in arms are inscribed. Then I head across the river to Arlington to pay my respects. On your way in, you pass through Memorial Circle, which is the very space where Trump wants to put his arch. I can’t think of anything less fitting to welcome Americans to this particular place.
Arlington is a place for solemn, serious reflection, where we memorialize American heroes. The arch is a desecration of that.
Arlington House stands at the top of a hill inside the cemetery, looking out over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Lincoln and Washington monuments, and the Capitol dome beyond. When you stand there looking out, it is awe-inspiring. You are overcome by the feeling that you are surrounded by heroes—more than 400,000 of them—people who stood for America, fought for it, and died for it. To have that view disfigured by an archway honoring a president who has spent his life denigrating servicemembers is simply a bridge too far.
As of today, the arch’s construction is tied up in litigation. To make absolutely sure it doesn’t proceed, I’ve started a petition (unaffiliated with Home of the Brave), which you can sign, to protect the sacred ground at Arlington. Our demands are simple, clear, and nonnegotiable:
“Immediately stop the proposed arch project. Protect the historic and memorial integrity of the corridor between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Respect the memory of those buried at Arlington and the service of all veterans, service members, and military families. Ensure that veterans and the public are heard before any such project moves forward.”
None of this should be controversial. It’s a national disgrace that this is a debate we even have to have in 2026. Shielding America’s fallen heroes from this kind of cheap, self-aggrandizing political theatre should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, we have a president whose ego knows no bounds, an entire class of professional sycophants and enablers whose shamelessness and servility are without limits.
As long as that’s the case, and as long as the honor and dignity of American veterans is at stake, I’ll be standing here in the breach, saying: No way. Not on my watch. The oath I swore is alive in me today, just like it was all those years ago when I deployed to Vietnam. It demands that I do everything in my power to hold a mirror up to America, and say: When will it end? When will the American public stand up and say enough is enough?
Well, this is me saying enough is enough.
Ronn Easton is a Vietnam veteran and a participant in Home of the Brave, which exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy. You can sign his petition to stop the “Arc de Trump” here.
