For the better part of the year, President Trump has proposed the idea of a military parade in Washington, DC. A cost estimate of $92 million that leaked from unnamed pentagon official Thursday quickly put the skids for the parade.
Trump said Friday morning that the skyrocketing cost was due to local DC politicians wanting to gouge the federal government. “The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” Trump said, “When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up!”
The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
The president then announced the new plan – to schedule the parade in 2019 and use the money to “buy some more jet fighters!”
….attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
A Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement, “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. We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser clapped back at Trump, tweeting, “Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad).”