There are three pressing questions when it comes to Trump’s pursuit of architectural hegemony over the District of Columbia, determined to leave his mark so that no one forgets that for a brief moment in history, he was in total and unquestioned control. The first is his aesthetic, which tends strongly to the grandiose and tacky. The second is his authority to tear down and built up whatever pleases him at any given moment, which is partially solved by his stacking the relevant commissions with people both loyal to him and clueless as to architecture. The third is who is going to stop him?

Among the more grandiose notions is the arch Trump plans to build at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island. The land is expressly protected, however, and subject to congressional authority. Does that mean Trump has to use his congressional majority to obtain the authority to build a 250-foot tall arch to reflect the greater glory of Trump’s victory in Venezuela, Iran, or maybe Cuba? Not quite.

Instead, administration officials have cited a 1924 report by a federal commission charged with designing the Arlington Memorial Bridge. That report called for building a pair of 166-foot-tall columns, surmounted by statues, on Columbia Island that would frame the nearby Lincoln Memorial.

Congress formally ratified the commission’s report in 1925, and the Memorial Bridge was soon built. However, the columns were not constructed, and Trump officials today argue that in building the arch they would be carrying out past lawmakers’ wishes.

“Congress authorized the arch project when it approved the design set out in Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission’s report,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing last month.

And indeed, the 1924 report does speak of two columns, the purpose of which was to frame the entry to the cemetary.

Even before the reclamation of Columbia Island by the dredging operations of the Corps of Engineers had advanced materially it was always considered as a suitable site for formal park treatment, a fitting end for the Memorial Bridge, as well as an important feature itself. Being so intimately related to the bridge, it thought proper that the plans for the ultimate development of Columbia Island as a park should be included as part of the project for the Memorial Bridge. Accordingly, the lines of the shore of the island have been somewhat rectified to permit a cross axis almost perpendicular to the main axis of the bridge and extending the full length of the island. The intersection suggested a plaza with fitting architectural adornment in a measure supplemental to the Lincoln Memorial across the river, and for this purpose two stately columns are proposed to be erected here, framing in but not interfering with the view of the Lincoln Memorial from the direction of the Lee Mansion. These columns symbolize the one the North and the other the South. They are surmounted by statues of Victory, the stylobates whence they rise offering surfaces suitable for decorations, bas-relief, and inscriptions. The columns are 166 feet high, or practically the same height as the Colonne de Juillet in Paris.

To be fair, it’s quite impressive that anyone found this lone paragraph in an obscure 1924 report. That said, does this report, ratified by Congress the following year, provide Trump with carte blanche to build his dream arch?

“President Trump believes that this year’s celebration of 250 years of American independence is the perfect moment to finally realize this long-standing, over-century-old vision, but yet unfilled vision for Columbia Island,” Burgum said as he encouraged the Trump-appointed arts commissioners to support the project.

Except that bears absolutely no relation to the purpose of the two columns approved, which were proposed to “frame but not interfere with the view of the Lincoln Memorial.” If Trump’s arch didn’t interfere with everything around it, it wouldn’t be Trump’s arch.

Burgum also said the administration’s new proposal is “building on” the 166-foot-tall columns conceived a century ago, noting that the columns for Trump’s planned arch would also be 166 feet tall. But they would be topped by an additional 84 feet of pedestal and statuary to bring the arch’s total height to 250 feet.

Columns aren’t an arch. 166 feet isn’t 250 feet. Nothing about the 1924 report or authorization has anything to do with the Arc d’ Trump. And yet, this is how we get to the third issue raised, who’s going to stop him?

Suit has been filed to prevent the construction of the arch, which has already commenced to the extent of initial drilling. The argument is that the arch directly conflicts with the purpose of the columns approved in 1925.

“The notion Congress a century ago authorized construction of this 250-foot arch in Memorial Circle is absurd,” said Wendy Liu, a lawyer at Public Citizen Litigation Group. The firm, the litigating arm of nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen, is representing military veterans and an architectural historian who are challenging the project because it would alter the views between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

Then there’s Congress, which is a body that used to play a role in the functioning of government, a quaint if archaic notion these days.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees national parks, has said that the administration was obligated to seek congressional approval for the arch. In an interview on Wednesday, he drew comparisons to Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing and begin resurfacing the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool without congressional authorization.

“This is their playbook,” Huffman said. “The fact that they’re trotting out this tortured argument that a 100-year-old authorization for something totally different satisfies a law today is laughable, but consistent with their pattern of ignoring Congress.”

Huffman sent a letter to the Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee calling for oversight into Trump’s vanity projects. No doubt they will respond when the reach the bottom of the “to-do” pile.

Whether you think the arch is a good idea or not, it is almost certainly going to happen in all its Trumpian glory, not because it’s authorized, not because it’s needed, not because there is some event that demands recognition by an arch, but because he can and there’s no one to stop him.