Janet Harris

BREAKING: OUTRAGE! Nine Kennedy family members join lawsuit to STOP Trump's towering monument from overshadowing JFK's grave. The giant golden monumental arch that Donald Trump wants to build to celebrate himself just got another prominent set of opponents seeking to ensure that it never actually sees the light of day. According to The New York Times, nine members of the Kennedy family moved Tuesday to join a lawsuit trying to block Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch, the one that critics call the “Arc de Trump.” The plaintiffs are children and grandchildren of Sens. Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, who are buried near their brother, President John F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery. The move comes after the family successfully fought against adding Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The arch, topped with golden angels and a flame, would stand between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington. The family’s filing says it would “permanently cast a shadow over plaintiffs’ parents’ graves and the graves of servicemen and -women who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country.” It would also block the view from JFK’s eternal flame across the Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. The filing says that sightline was “designed to represent the unification of the nation following the Civil War” and has existed for nearly a century. Blocking it would destroy “an essential element of the gravesite’s design.” Rory and Maxwell Kennedy, children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, said: “A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles.” Remember who else is a child of Robert F. Kennedy: Trump’s Health Secretary, RFK Jr. His own siblings are now in court fighting his boss over their parents’ graves. The Kennedys are joining a crowded fight. Veterans, a historian, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Arlington County are already suing. Last Thursday, the National Capital Planning Commission, which is run by Trump allies, gave the arch final approval. Almost immediately, Judge Tanya Chutkan blocked construction for 14 days. In a 33-page opinion, she said the arch needs approval from Congress, could be costly to Virginia and D.C., and would disrupt traffic at one of the region’s most-visited sites. That’s the same Congress Democrats just won. “Only Congress has the constitutional power to authorize an intrusion of this magnitude,” said the family’s lawyers, Norman Eisen and Steve Jonas of the Democracy Defenders Fund. Look at the pattern. Trump tore down the East Wing for a ballroom. He cut down 400 trees to remake a public golf course. He has tried to put his name on the Kennedy Center. Now he wants a 25-story arch overshadowing one of the most sacred places in the country, the cemetery where America buries its war dead. Arlington belongs to the people buried there and to the families who mourn them. It is not — and should never be — a backdrop for Trump’s ego. Please like and share if you agree!