"It hasn't started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It'll be great. Everyone loves it," Trump told POLITICO when reached by phone from Mar-a-Lago. "They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch."

The proposed structure " modeled loosely on European victory monuments " is one of several high-profile projects Trump has personally championed as part of the semiquincentennial celebrations, a sprawling effort expected to include national and local events across the country.