Trump says his coveted arch is his ‘primary’ focus — not bringing down soaring costs

With just days remaining until millions of Americans will have to pay dramatically increased health care insurance costs unless Congress and the White House can agree on extending Covid-era tax credits, President Donald Trump says his top domestic policy aide has been tasked with something far more important.

The president told attendees at a Sunday White House Christmas reception that Domestic Policy Council boss Vince Haley’s “primary thing” is the construction of a massive triumphal arch to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary — not lowering healthcare costs or addressing the affordability issues that have driven a string of Democratic victories in off-year elections this year.

“It’s something that is so special. Uh, it will be like the one in, in Paris, but to be honest with you, it blows it away. Blows it away in every way,” he said. “And Vince came in one day and his eyes were teeming. I mean, he couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. He saw it and he wanted to do that.”

Addressing Haley, Trump added: “That’s your primary thing.”

The president first hinted at plans for the massive structure in October, when he displayed a model of the proposed project during an Oval Office meeting with Finnish president Alexander Stabb.

He more formally unveiled the project during his controversial dinner for donors to his White House ballroom project days later.

The massive construction project will involve erecting the arch on a traffic circle near Arlington Cemetery, with two giant white eagles attached to the top.

Trump has previously claimed that the roundabout was initially planned to be named Memorial Circle in 1902, with a statue of Confederate Civil War general Robert E Lee being erected on the site.

“Every time somebody rides over that beautiful bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, they literally say something is supposed to be here,” he said at the time.

The president also claimed that some of the money left over from the $300 million ballroom project will fund the construction of the arch, which strongly resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris that had been commissioned by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to commemorate soldiers who died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

During his second term, Trump has launched several major construction projects, besides adding a ballroom to the White House and the arch.

The president paved over the historic Rose Garden at the White House, which had been decorated in a French formal style by John F. Kennedy’s administration. Trump replaced all of the grass with patio tiles before rebranding it as his “Rose Garden Club.”

He has also radically transformed the Oval Office, adding gold medallions, cherubs, eagles and Rococo-style mirrors. The style mimics the decor seen in his Mar-a-Lago mansion and in Trump Tower.