Donald Trump’s Military Parade is Off, At Least Until 2019: Pentagon Ditches Reported $92 Million Display
A massive military parade ordered by Donald Trump for November 10 in advance of Veterans’ Day in Washington, D.C., will not happen — at least not on that date. CNBC reported on Thursday that the parade was off, just hours after a previous CNBC report revealing that the costs of the planned military display would run $80 million more than originally estimated.
“The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America’s military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,” a statement from Pentagon spokesperson Rob Manning read, as quoted by CNBC. “We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”
The cost of the parade was originally slated at $12 million, according to NBC News, though Trump administration budget director Mick Mulvaney said that the cost could run as high as $30 million.
Defense Department sources revealed today that the actual expense of the massive display of America’s military might could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $92 million, according to the New York Times, which also reported that Trump has long been fascinated by the idea of staging large military parades similar to those held on an annual basis in Russia.
Trump’s inaugural committee explored, but ultimately rejected a plan to hold a military parade as part of Trump’s January 20, 2017 inauguration, according to the New York Times report.
Trump became set on staging his own military parade after a visit to France in July of 2017, where he witnessed that country’s annual Bastille Day parade, according to New York Times.
“Mr. Trump saw firsthand the full potential and grandeur of a military parade as he sat alongside President Emmanuel Macron of France and by all accounts enjoyed a Bastille Day celebration.
“Upon returning home, Mr. Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted a similar parade in the United States.”
Washington, D.C. hosts an annual parade on Veterans’ Day, but Trump’s vision for a military display far outstripped anything the Pentagon had ever done and the military brass did not believe that Trump’s parade idea was a good one. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis opposed the plan when Trump presented it to him, NYT reported.
Retired Major General Paul Eaton also called the parade a “bad idea” — largely because he did not believe the purpose of the spectacle was to honor the military.
“This is about assuaging a fragile ego that we’ve got with this commander in chief,” Eaton told WBUR Radio in Boston. “This is not the American tradition. This is a totalitarian tradition. This is something that you see in North Korea, China, former Soviet Union and today in Russia.” The general added that France’s century-old Bastille Day Parade is the only such traditional display seen in a democratic country.
