# Donald Trump — "Me. It's going to be beautiful." > [!quote] Reporter: "Who is it for?" — Trump: "Me. It's going to be beautiful." > — Donald Trump, Oval Office, October 15, 2025, asked about the model of the [[Independence Arch]] on the Resolute Desk ## Context CBS's Ed O'Keefe asked about the arch model sitting on the Oval Office desk as Trump unveiled plans for the 250-foot triumphal arch at Memorial Circle, pitched as an [[America 250]] centerpiece; O'Keefe floated "the Arc de Trump" as a name. Asked who the monument was for, Trump answered with one word. Heather Cox Richardson's letter of July 26, 2026 renders the exchange slightly differently ("It's an Arc. Take a look," then Trump pointing at himself: "Me"); the version above follows CBS's contemporaneous report. ## Why this matters The shortest receipt in the vault for the vanity-project pattern: a national semiquincentennial monument, on federal memorial land, described by its sponsor in the first person singular. It collapses the [[America 250]] framing in a single syllable and supplies the intent evidence behind every legal objection that the arch commemorates a person, not the founding — see the [[Commemorative Works Act]] fight and [[National Park Service Funds Diversion]]. ## Verification - **Reporting + provenance:** [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-new-arch-resembling-arc-de-triomphe/); [TIME](https://time.com/7326081/trump-president-arch-washington-project-construction/); [CNN](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/trump-envisions-new-arch-near-washington-dc). - **Status:** Verbatim per CBS; on-camera exchange. HCR's rendering is a paraphrase-level variant of the same moment. ## Related quotes - [[Donald Trump - This is taxpayer-free no taxpayer putting up 10 cents]] — the funding-side companion claim from the vanity-project cluster.