Is a Monument to Power Un-American?

Historians see the president’s proposed triumphal arch as a departure from the tradition of and meaning behind American monuments. Illustration by Noah Hickey/The Dispatch (Photos via Getty Images/Wikimedia Commons). Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. In 2005, conservative essayist Charles Krauthammer praised the monuments on the National Mall for being dedicated to “the power and glory of ideas.” “Other capitals celebrate the gloria and fortuna of victory,” he wrote. “No Arch of Triumph here.” Krauthammer was boasting; at the time, a monument celebrating simple power and dominance seemed fundamentally un-American. Daniel Sipes is a Dispatch intern from Washington, D.C. He graduated in 2026 from the University of Chicago with degrees in economics and public policy and a minor in English and creative writing. His hobbies include weightlifting, reading, and continually writing and then throwing away the first 10 pages of the Great American Novel. More We Think You’d Like