Why I’m Suing to Block Trump’s Arch

Authoritarian leaders project strength to mask their weakness. I’ve seen this happen before—and I’ve seen it be defeated.

Photo Illustration by Lizzy Spira

By Jon Gundersen

Right now Donald Trump is seeking to make his mark on Washington—literally—in the worst possible way. He’s slapping his face on federal buildings, demolishing whole sections of the White House, and shutting down the streets of the nation’s capital for his pageantry. But by far the most egregious of his vanity projects is the attempt to impose a grotesque, 250-foot-high arch on Memorial Circle just outside Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 400,000 of America’s fallen heroes are buried.

If allowed to go forward, this would be a singular dishonor to those service members, and a further disfigurement of the landscape to serve one man’s fragile ego. That’s why I’m suing to stop it. Earlier this year I joined a lawsuit from Public Citizen to halt the construction of Trump’s arch, along with my fellow veterans Michael Lemmon and Shaun Byrnes, and the architectural historian Calder Roth. As we stated in our filing:

“The planned Arch, by obstructing the symbolic and inspiring view from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial, would dishonor their military and foreign service and the legacy of their comrades and other veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and would degrade their personal experience when visiting Arlington Cemetery or traveling around Memorial Circle and on the Memorial Avenue Corridor.”

It didn’t used to be this way. Whether it was technological advancement or civil rights victories, the America of my youth was an optimistic, confident country, constantly (though imperfectly) striving to make people’s lives better and more fully realize our founding credo. My generation worked to live up to this legacy, including the millions of us who answered the call to serve in the armed forces and put our lives on the line for the cause of freedom and democracy.

I voluntarily enlisted in the Army in 1966 to serve in Vietnam. I swore an oath to defend not a man or a political cause, but the US Constitution. Some of my comrades died in Vietnam; their names are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Since 1966 I have served six Republican and six Democratic Presidents. I have always done so proudly.

In 1973, I joined the foreign service. My first senior appointment was under Ronald Reagan. I have always believed in promoting American values and our democracy around the world. I still do. During the height of the Cold War, I held appointments behind the Iron Curtain, including in Moscow starting in 1979. I have seen authoritarianism in action, with its goose-stepping military parades, hero-worship of the dear leader, and climate of fear and intimidation that hangs over everything like a pall. Back then I knew this to be true: All of that pageantry is mere window dressing to hide the fact that the emperor has no clothes.

I was behind the iron curtain when the “Evil Empire” began to collapse. In 1990 I was appointed as Consul General to Ukraine, then still a Republic in the Soviet Union. On December 1, 1991, in the first free elections, over 92 percent of Ukrainians voted for independence. Shortly thereafter I opened the American embassy as the interim Chargé d’Affaires (Acting Ambassador) in 1992. For the first time in living memory, the Ukrainian people were free to choose their own future, to forge their own destiny, unencumbered by the shackles of totalitarianism. It’s no accident that now, all these decades later, Ukraine is being forced to fight a war for its own survival because Vladimir Putin decided it was exercising too much freedom and autonomy.

During my time abroad, I saw firsthand how countries without democracy and a limited understanding of national identity can devolve into one-man rule. While in the USSR, I was struck by the caste and social separation between people of different religions and ethnicities. While far from perfect, the United States has been different. To be an American meant we weren’t defined by our country of origin, our religion, or language—but rather connected by our shared values. Presidents used to affirm this sentiment, like my old boss Reagan’s famous quote, “We Americans are bound together not by common ancestry, but by our common blessing of freedom.”

It didn’t matter where you came from or where you were born as long as you valued loyalty, moral character, compassion, and an instinct to stand up to bullies and preserve the rights of the people around you. If you believed in these values and wanted to protect them, you were an American.

Sadly, our current President Trump doesn’t share any of these values. You can learn a lot about a leader’s moral character based on the actions of those he surrounds himself with. Do they admire, respect, and seek to emulate him? Those are the kinds of leaders we followed into battle during my service. Or are they bound to him solely by fear, or the desire to benefit from their proximity to power? Trump falls squarely in the latter camp. He is surrounded by acolytes and suck-ups and he doesn’t have to worry about anyone telling him a truth that doesn’t correspond to his own reality. That is not loyalty, it’s cowardice. And it’s the American people who ultimately suffer the consequences.

Call me old-school, but I remember a certain toughness of the American spirit—a quiet confidence that meant leaders didn’t need to go around with chests puffed out, asserting and re-asserting their strength. This was the confidence of a Dwight D. Eisenhower, a John F. Kennedy, a Reagan—all men who didn’t seek to put people down but instead to lift them up. Trump does the opposite. He builds monuments to himself to feel powerful, and seeks to steamroll anyone who stands in his way. That’s not a sign of strength; it’s a sign of weakness. Our national monuments should reflect American values, not egos. That’s why this arch cannot appear at Arlington.

This administration has made it its mission to degrade the fundamental American values that make this country so great: loyalty, moral character, courage, and compassion. This administration is trying to get people to accept a world in which the weak cloak themselves in faux-strength, and the strong are made to look weak. This is Orwellian. I urge people to not let themselves fall into this cycle of nihilism. I may no longer go abroad to fight for democracy but I can do my part as an American to fight for democracy at home. So should you.

Jon Gundersen is a Vietnam veteran, career foreign service officer, and plaintiff in Public Citizen’s lawsuit to block the construction of Trump’s arch at Arlington National Cemetery.