Price tag for Trump’s military festival could reach $45 million
Service members will be housed in the Agriculture Department and General Services Administration buildings for days.
By Olivia George
A massive military parade and festivities planned in Washington next month will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million and will involve dozens of warplanes, hundreds of Army vehicles and thousands of soldiers from across the country sleeping in downtown government office buildings, an Army spokesperson said Thursday.
The parade, to commemorate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, will be held June 14, the same day as President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday, and will include representation from all active Army divisions, said Steve Warren, a spokesman for the branch.
The parade’s overlap with Trump’s birthday has stirred ire among some civilians and veterans, especially at a time when his overhaul of the federal government includes slashing the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The response from D.C.’s mayor, however, has been more muted than when Trump proposed a parade during his first term. The president has long mused about soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of the capital and aircraft roaring overhead but backed off the idea in 2018 amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials over exorbitant costs and the damage tanks might cause to roads.
The spectacle and the tension surrounding it also highlight D.C.’s dual identity as the seat of the U.S. federal government and a deep-blue city that overwhelmingly voted against Trump three times. Protest plans are also underway.
About 3,000 service members will be housed on unused floors of a General Services Administration building and 2,000 in an Agriculture Department building, Warren said. Most participating service members will arrive a couple of days before the parade, he said, and leave June 16.
Vehicles will arrive in the region by rail and be trucked into the city, he said. Participating aircraft will fly in.
Overall, 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft and 6,600 soldiers are expected to take part in the festivities, the Army has announced. There will be a fireworks display and a day-long festival on the National Mall with military demonstrations, musical performances and a fitness competition.
After an initial interview with The Post about the parade’s cost, Warren said the estimate he provided for the parade included other events taking place that day. He said he wasn’t able to provide a cost breakdown of each of the day’s events.
The parade will be part of a week-long celebration marking the anniversary of the Continental Congress’s vote to officially create the Continental Army to defend the colonies from the British. Other events include an Army birthday run at Fort Myer and a new exhibition at the National Museum of the U.S. Army.
Each division is responsible for funding transportation of personnel and equipment to and from the D.C. region.
“They’ll fund it, of course, but I think the important note is that it won’t affect their ability to train or supply themselves,” Warren said. “When units need more money, we give them more money.” Parade plans have been in the works for over a year, he said.
An application submitted earlier this spring called for the parade to begin at the Pentagon’s north parking lot at 6 p.m., cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge into D.C. and continue on Constitution Avenue NW, ending at 15th Street. The application was filed by America250.org, a nonprofit founded to support the federal government’s multiyear celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The Army’s Golden Knights will parachute down to the Ellipse, where there will be a presidential “review stand,” bleachers and a concert stage, the application says.
“The procession will tell the story of the history of the Army, beginning with the Revolutionary War and concluding with the modern-day Army,” Army spokesperson Heather Hagan said earlier.
Meanwhile, demonstrators from across the country also are making plans of their own, intending to protest Trump “and the War Machine” in D.C. that day, according to a permit application filed with the National Park Service last week. Andy Koch, a Minneapolis-based organizer with Freedom Road Socialist Organization helping to plan the protest, said a crowd hopes to rally in Meridian Hill Park in Northwest Washington and then march toward the military parade.
“As an Army veteran myself, I’m proud of the Army’s birthday,” said Naveed Shah, political director of Common Defense, a progressive veteran-led organization, “but this parade seems like it’s all about the president’s ego rather than the troops who sacrifice everything in order to serve our country.”
Seven years ago, when Trump in his first term proposed a parade inspired by one he saw in France, his vision was swiftly met with jeers from local leaders and residents concerned about road damage and costs.
The D.C. Council offered a simple message on social media: “Tanks but No Tanks!” The mayor wrote in a tweet that went viral: “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).”
Since Trump returned to the Oval Office, Bowser has taken a different stance toward the president as she tries to walk a fine line between trying to discourage federal intervention and using priorities shared by her administration, Trump and the GOP-led Congress to benefit the District.
Still, Bowser said last month at an unrelated event that her concerns about military tanks on city roads still apply.
“If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads,” she said. Her office declined to comment further Thursday.
The Army is working with local law enforcement, the National Park Service, the District Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Park Police and D.C. Water, which will assess the roads and bridges, said Hagan, the Army spokesperson.
The last time troops paraded in D.C. was in 1991, when 800,000 people poured into the nation’s capital to honor Gulf War service members and watch a seven-block-long display of military equipment.
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