1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Stop the arch at Memorial Circle and tear down the White House ballroom. Interior Secretary Burgum says excavation begins within two weeks, without final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, without clearing the aviation review, and over the objections of veterans whose families are buried at Arlington. Three Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian have already sued. Congress needs to act before the concrete is poured. A 250-foot triumphal arch built for a sitting president, placed between the Lincoln Memorial and 400,000 American war dead, is not a public work. When asked who the arch was for, Trump pointed at himself and said "me." That's the whole answer. The 90,000-square-foot ballroom that replaced the East Wing — with a reported military complex underneath and a price tag that jumped from $200 million to $300 million — belongs in the same category. A former Trump administration official pointed a New Yorker reporter to "Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics" to explain what's happening in Washington. That wasn't a Democrat. That was someone who sat in those meetings. The Allies dynamited Hitler's monuments in 18 months. They kept what honored the dead and razed what honored the man. That's the standard. Block the arch funding, demand the NCPC process be followed, and put the ballroom demolition on the table. The midterms are in 59 days. This is the vote I'm watching.