President Donald Trump’s proposed renovation projects include a massive “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery. In an article for The Bulwark, Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol sharply criticized the proposal, arguing that it conflicts with democratic American values.

“To my untrained eye,” Kristol wrote, “it seems undistinguished, vulgar, and overbearing. But what do I know about architecture? What I do know is that this is not American architecture. It is triumphal, in its way. But that way is European. Or South American. Or North Korean.”

Kristol described Trump’s proposed arch as a leading example of what he called the president’s “Napoleon envy”—an alleged fascination with France’s Napoleon Bonaparte.

“(Interior Secretary Doug) Burgum himself inadvertently makes this point: ‘Over 70 major cities/capitals around the world … showcase beautiful arches. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is the only major Western capital without an arch,’” Kristol wrote. “I’m old enough to remember when we Americans would have taken this as a point of distinction, as a point of pride. We don’t do Great Triumphal Arches. We don’t want Great Triumphal Arches. We don’t need Great Triumphal Arches to prove to ourselves that we are a great nation. That’s what emperors and dictators do.”

The conservative journalist said Trump’s inspiration appeared to be Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, which Napoleon commissioned in 1806. Kristol contrasted Napoleon’s rule with the history of the United States, writing that Americans once took pride in the fact that the American Revolution followed a different path from the French Revolution.

“We used to be proud that the American Revolution culminated in the American Constitution, that it led to the establishment of a constitutional republic that has flourished for two and half centuries, not an empire that lasted a couple of decades,” he wrote.

Kristol also emphasized the difference between George Washington and Napoleon. “Here in Washington, D.C., we honor George Washington, not Napoleon,” he wrote.

“Washington was elected president of the new republic, governed constitutionally, and turned over the reins of government after two terms,” Kristol explained. “Napoleon seized power, governed dictatorially, and kept power until he led his nation to bloody defeat in wars he launched.”

According to Kristol, the Trump administration’s Great Triumphal Arch and military observation deck would stand 250 feet tall—54 percent taller than Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe. “We’ll have, as Burgum boasted, ‘the most spectacular and beautiful arch of them all!’” Kristol wrote.

He argued that Americans “should all be appalled that the silent and dignified rows of white marble headstones at Arlington could be overshadowed by this Great Triumphal Arch.”

“We should all be appalled that our current president is trying to impose such an un-American project on us,” Kristol warned. “But America in 2026 isn’t France in 1806. President Trump isn’t Emperor Napoleon. Here, the people rule. Stop the arch.”