Safety Experts Warn of Risks Created by Trump's Militarized Arch Plan

The Washington Post via Getty Images Safety experts have sounded the alarm on Donald Trump’s bizarre plan to outfit his proposed triumphal arch with snipers, ammunition storage, and drones.

The president announced in a social media post over the weekend that the tacky new 250-foot monument he’s planning would be a “top-grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers.” For nearly a year, Trump has presented the arch, which would be located in Memorial Circle between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, as a tourist attraction with a ticket office, viewing decks, and a family restroom.

Critics have already opposed the project, arguing it would ruin the experience at nearby historical sites, exceed building height limits in the nation’s capital, and violate federal laws requiring congressional approval for new monuments, but Trump has been rushing to break ground all the same.

Now, aviation experts are warning that using drones at the planned arch site would increase the risk of a collision with a commercial airliner flying in nearby Reagan National Airport’s crowded airspace, The Washington Post reported.

Military experts are also raising the obvious question of what it would even mean to store ammunition in the middle of a heavily used traffic circle, especially if the arch would still be open to tourists.

Aviation safety in the area was already a major concern after an Army helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet in early 2025, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.

“Anything you add to the airspace complicates the airspace and increases the operational risk,” Tom Lintner, a former safety official at the Federal Aviation Administration, told the Post.

Former FAA and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigator Jeff Guzzetti said that even without knowing how often the drones would be used, they would “certainly” increase the risk of a collision.

The FAA last week said it had determined the proposed arch would not pose a hazard to aircraft so long as it featured a “nonstandard eternal flame” to make it noticeable to pilots and was continuously floodlit by searchlight projectors around the base.

But that was before Trump started talking about drones, and experts told the Post that the FAA would need to do a new safety study in light of the military revelations.

The problem, though, is that nobody seems to know what it would even mean to turn the arch into a military depot.

Spokespeople for the White House and the Pentagon told the Post they had nothing to add to the president’s vague social media announcement.

A defense official said it wasn’t clear if U.S.