The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is 164 feet tall.
The proposed Arc de Trump will be 250 feet tall.
Commissioned by Napoleon Buonaparte in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz, the French Arc’s construction symbolized his military dominance in early 19th Century Europe. Trump’s Arch will commemorate his overnight mugging of Venezuela and his colossal misadventures in Iran.
Officers of the French National Police force patrol by the Arc de Triomphe monument, four days ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on July 22, 2024. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)
Napoleon’s Arc cost 9 million francs to build in 1806; Trump’s will cost $100 million. Napoleon’s Arc lies at the center of Paris, a hub of the great city.
Trump’s Arch will flex its muscle and dominate the space between the Lincoln Memorial (ninety-nine feet tall), commemorating a real president, and Arlington National Cemetery, honoring actual battle victims.
Napoleon’s name appears on the French Arc along with the names of other French military figures. We don’t know yet if Trump’s name will appear on his Arch, but the multiple layers of gold leaf that decorate the Arch will undoubtedly identify the building’s visionary as the man who just couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
The most famous photograph of the early Second World War is of a Frenchman weeping at the sight of Nazi soldiers parading through the streets of Marseilles in 1940. For most Americans, the very completion of the Arc de Trump will initiate bitter tears that will never dry.
Jack Pasanen, Hartford