2026-05-25T06:00:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿讯——肖恩·伯恩斯和乔恩·冈德森在数十年军旅生涯与国务院任职期间曾效力于多位总统。如今作为退休人员，他们正将这位总司令告上法庭。
今年2月，冈德森、伯恩斯与另一名越战老兵及一位历史学家联合提起诉讼，要求停止修建这座250英尺高的拱门。该拱门计划建于阿灵顿国家公墓和林肯纪念堂之间一处闲置的交通环岛内。
他们辩称，该项目进度仓促，本届政府未获得国会的适当批准。他们表示，这座拱门会破坏林肯纪念堂与罗伯特·E·李纪念堂之间具有象征意义的视线关联——这一经过精心设计的视线通道旨在纪念内战后的国家统一。
根据最新效果图，这座拱门的高度将是林肯纪念堂的两倍多。
冈德森和伯恩斯表示，他们针对特朗普总统在阿灵顿公墓入口处修建凯旋拱门的诉讼并非党派之争。
“我认为我们所做的一切是忠于国家。而忠诚的表达方式各不相同，”退休陆军特种部队军官冈德森在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时说道。
伯恩斯表示，他加入由公共公民诉讼团体牵头的这场诉讼，是出于对安葬在阿灵顿公墓阵亡将士的尊重。
“这更多关乎我对未能归国的战友和友人所肩负的责任——无论现任政府是谁，都要站出来反对这个项目，”曾两度赴越南服役的海军退伍军人伯恩斯说道。“我认为，这是对那些与我一同服役却未能归来的战友，以及所有长眠在阿灵顿国家公墓的逝者的不敬。”
伯恩斯原本希望自己身后能安葬在阿灵顿国家公墓，但他表示，如果这座拱门建成，他将“重新考虑”自己的安葬地点。
美国司法部已提出动议要求驳回该诉讼，称原告团体不具备起诉资格。尽管本届国会尚未就该项目举行正式投票，但政府官员暗示国会早已批准了该项目，并援引了100多年前通过的一项计划。该计划呼吁修建两座象征南北双方的宏伟石柱，高度为166英尺。
上个月，一名联邦法官驳回了暂停施工的动议，而目前该项目尚未动工。
81岁的冈德森和83岁的伯恩斯认为，这座拱门并非纪念美国建国250周年的纪念物，而是为纪念特朗普个人的纪念碑。
去年，特朗普在椭圆形办公室向一群记者展示了这座类似巴黎凯旋门的项目模型，并表示这座建筑“将会非常壮观”。
当被哥伦比亚广播公司新闻记者埃德·奥基夫问及这座拱门是为谁而建时，特朗普指向了自己。
“我，”他说道。
在推动该项目的关键一步中，上周美国美术委员会批准了拱门建设方案，尽管遭到了绝大多数公众的反对。
内政部
据美联社报道，在上周的美术委员会会议上，该委员会秘书托马斯·吕贝克表示，“100%的公众评论都反对该项目”。另一个由总统盟友主导的城市规划委员会可能会在6月初批准该项目。
冈德森和伯恩斯在职业生涯中都曾被派往莫斯科，并协助美国在苏联解体后的东欧国家开设大使馆。他们表示，这座所谓的“特朗普拱门”让他们想起了自己曾作战和工作过的国家。
“我们清楚独裁专制政权的运作方式，”冈德森说道，“那里没有法治，没有民众的同意，只为领导人修建纪念碑。”
特朗普曾表示这座拱门将由私人捐款而非纳税人资金出资，冈德森对此并不买账，他说：“即便用私人捐款，这难道就是我们想要的建纪念碑的方式吗？为那些捐钱换取特权的寡头们建碑？”
“我们曾为国家而战。我们热爱这个国家，我们将坚持到底，我认为我们可以改变现状，”他说道。
For a group of Vietnam vets, opposing Trump’s arch is about being “loyal to the country”
2026-05-25T06:00:00-0400 / CBS News
Washington — Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen have served multiple presidents throughout their decades in the military and State Department. Now, as retirees, they’re taking on the commander-in-chief in a court of law.
In February, Gundersen and Byrnes, alongside another Vietnam veteran and a historian, sued to stop construction of the 250-foot arch that is set to be built in a currently empty traffic circle between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.
They argue the project has been rushed and the administration hasn’t gotten proper congressional approval. The arch, they say, would disrupt the symbolic connection between the Lincoln Memorial and the Robert E. Lee Memorial, a carefully considered sightline meant to convey unity after the Civil War.
According to recent renderings, the arch would be more than double the height of the Lincoln Memorial.
Gundersen and Byrnes say their lawsuit challenging President Trump’s triumphal arch at the entrance to Arlington Cemetery isn’t a partisan quest.
“I think what we’re doing is being loyal to the country. And loyalty can be measured in different ways,” Gundersen, a retired Army Special Forces officer, told CBS News in an interview.
Byrnes said he joined the suit, which is led by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, out of respect for fallen soldiers buried in Arlington.
“It’s more about the duty I feel towards my colleagues and friends who did not come home to stand up against this project, regardless of who’s in charge,” Byrnes, a Navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, said. “I think it’s just disrespectful to those that I served with who didn’t come back, and then, of course, to all those who are lying in Arlington National Cemetery.”
Byrnes had hoped to be interred in Arlington National Cemetery, but if the arch is built, he said he would “reconsider” his burial location.
The Justice Department has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming the group lacks proper standing to sue. While no formal vote has been held by the current Congress, administration officials have suggested Congress already authorized the project, pointing to a plan adopted more than 100 years ago. It called for the construction of “two stately columns,” 166 feet tall, that symbolize the North and South.
Last month, a federal judge denied a motion to temporarily halt the construction, which hasn’t begun yet.
Gundersen, 81, and Byrnes, 83, view the arch not as a commemoration of America’s 250th birthday but as a monument to one man: Mr. Trump.
Last year, Mr. Trump showed off a model of the development project, which resembles the Parisian Arc de Triomphe, telling a group of reporters in the Oval Office that the structure is “going to be fantastic.”
When asked by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe who the arch is for, Mr. Trump pointed to himself.
“Me,” he said.
In a key step in moving the project forward, last week the U.S. Commission for Fine Arts approved the arch, despite overwhelming public opposition.
Rendering of Trump triumphal arch that would sit between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery submitted by the Interior Dept. to the Commission on Fine Arts, April 16, 2026. Department of the Interior
At the CFA meeting last week, the group’s secretary, Thomas Luebke, said that “100% of the comments were against the project,” The Associated Press reported. An urban planning commission, also stocked with allies of the president, could sign off on the project in early June.
Gundersen and Byrnes, who were both dispatched to Moscow in their careers and helped open U.S. embassies in post-Soviet Eastern Bloc countries, said the so-called “Arc de Trump” reminds them of countries they have fought and worked in.
“We know how authoritarian dictatorships work,” Gundersen said. “There’s no rule of law, there’s no consent of the governed, and there’s monuments for the leaders there.”
Gundersen also found little reassurance in Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the arch would be paid for by private donations, not taxpayer dollars, saying, “Even if you took private donations, is that how we want to build monuments? To the oligarchs who give money for favors?”
“We have fought for our country. We believe in this country, and we’re going to continue to the end, and I think we can change things,” he said.
发表回复