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New details have emerged about the giant military spectacle President Donald Trump has ordered to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and his own 79th birthday on June 14. According to reports, the cost of the event is said to have skyrocketed as high as $45m.
The president’s ambitious plans are understood to include a parade running from Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River and into Washington. The parade would pay tribute to the Army’s history, from the Revolutionary War to the present day, and feature soldiers marching in period uniforms.
The marchers will be joined by a convoy of armored vehicles while vintage aircraft soar overhead. At least seven marching bands, parachute jumpers, an evening concert, and a fireworks show will also take place.
Two U.S. officials cited by Reuters have now placed the cost of the day’s festivities at between $25m and $45m, explaining that the parade alone had added several million dollars to the total.
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Their estimates exclude the additional cost to the city of any subsequent cleanup operations, from trash collection to road repairs, which could become necessary if the heavy vehicles damage D.C.’s streets.
The Independent has asked the White House for more details on the likely cost of this summer’s spectacle.
Reuters also reports that the celebration will see around two dozen M1 Abrams tanks among the 150 vehicles joining the parade, alongside Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers, and infantry vehicles.
Second World War-era B-17 bombers and P-51 Mustang fighter planes will fly over the National Mall, followed by newer aircraft, including 50 Apache, Black Hawk, and Chinook helicopters.
USA Today further reports that the number of soldiers taking part has risen to 7,500, after planning documents seen by the Associated Press earlier this month suggested the total would be closer to 6,600.
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The troops will reportedly descend on the capital in the days prior and be housed in a Department of Agriculture building and a former government warehouse owned by the General Services Administration on 7th Street.
They will receive two ready meals and one hot meal plus $50 per day in additional pay for taking part, the newspaper adds. However, at present, “the Army is struggling to outfit soldiers in uniforms from the War of 1812 and the Spanish-American War,” according to one defense official.
A permit application submitted to the National Parks Service (NPS) reveals that the grounds of the Washington Monument will be open to crowds and offer refreshments and bathroom facilities. At the same time, the Ellipse will have a presidential review stand, bleachers, and a concert stage.
The evening entertainment will commence at 8 pm and “consist of five to seven musical acts” made up of “well-known performers,” who are “likely from the country music world,” before the fireworks round off the day at 9.45 pm.
While the $45m estimated cost of the extravaganza might seem high, it is still less than half of the $92m a similar event was valued at in 2018 during Trump’s first term, a price tag the president baulked at, forcing him to scrap a display he had hoped might rival France’s Bastille Day commemorations.
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Kristen Welker asked Trump about the cost of his new-and-improved iteration during their recent Meet the Press interview, and Trump described it as “Peanuts compared to the value of doing it.”
Critics might nevertheless argue that the expense is inappropriate at a time when Americans are concerned about the inflated price of groceries and when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been firing federal employees and making cutbacks to the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies in the interest of slimming down excess spending.
Military parades are relatively uncommon in the United States, although one was held in D.C. in 1991 to celebrate the conclusion of the Gulf War.
Meanwhile, Trump’s plans have already attracted a planned counterprotest.
Another permit application submitted to the NPS for a competing event on the same day calls the president’s parade “an insult to the American people”. It estimates that as many as 20,000 people will rally to protest his administration “eroding the people’s democratic rights, our union rights, vilifying immigrants, gutting social services, and much more as part of his right-wing, racist agenda.”
