


President Donald Trump is reportedly planning on holding a 4-mile-long military parade on June 14 — his 79th birthday and the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary.
The Washington City Paper reported that the massive parade would flow from Arlington, Virginia, and into Washington, D.C. It is unclear whether the event would feature heavy military equipment, such as missile launchers or planes, as Trump once desired during his first term.
The parade logistics are reportedly still being hashed out but, according to Takis Karantonis, chair of the Arlington County Board in Virginia, the board received a “heads up” from the White House on Friday about the anticipated festivities.
Karantonis told HuffPost in an emailed statement that neither the police nor fire department in Arlington County had received a formal request from the federal government for assistance with any military parade as of Friday.
“Arlington is the proud home of tens of thousands of Veterans, active military and civilian personnel, and the Pentagon. We are a 9/11 community. U.S. Army history is Arlington history,” Karantonis said. “At this time, it is not clear to me what the scope of the parade would look be, but I would hope the Federal Government remains sensitive to the pain and concerns of numerous active military and veteran residents, who have lost or might lose their jobs in recent federal decisions, as they reflect on how best to celebrate the Army’s anniversary.”
During a press conference focused on local businesses in Washington on Monday, a reporter asked D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser whether the administration had contacted her about Trump’s parade.
At first, the mayor said, “I don’t know if it’s been characterized as a ‘military parade.’”
“Maybe it has. I haven’t been directly involved in it yet. I think it was Homeland Security, maybe the White House, reached out to our special events task force, which is what most people wanting to do a parade do in the District,” she continued. “Yes, they have reached out. I don’t know if it’s being characterized as a ‘military parade.’”
But moments later, she acknowledged that if the parade starts at the Pentagon in Arlington and works its way into D.C., it would seem to be a “military parade.”
Trump has long wanted a showy display of military might to descend on the nation’s capital.
After he won his first term, Trump wasted no time asking staff at the Pentagon to send him photos of military tactical vehicles he could use for his inaugural parade.
Emails showed the Pentagon was hesitant to comply, citing concerns over exorbitant costs. In the end, he didn’t get his parade, but there was a 20-plane flyover.
Pentagon officials said in 2018 that the cost to put troops and tanks in the streets of Washington then was an estimated $92 million. That price tag did not account for the estimated $21.6 million in additional costs to the District of Columbia for merely hosting the event. (Trump had initially said the parade would cost just $12 million.)
On Monday, Bowser said if tanks were used in June, it “wouldn’t be good” for D.C. streets but if the administration insisted, then the tanks “should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon immediately responded to HuffPost requests for comment Monday.
During Trump’s first term, he was inspired to plan a parade after attending a Bastille Day event in Paris where France’s jets, tanks and other heavy military equipment were on display.
Former U.S. military officials noted then that extensive military parades, especially with tanks rolling down U.S. roads, are not really in the American “style.”
“That’s just not our style. … You know how powerful you are, you don’t have to pretend,” retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told CNN in 2018.
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A source involved with preparations for Trump’s first inauguration told HuffPost in 2018 that, behind the scenes, military officials were worried a miles-long military parade would too closely resemble the military parades of North Korea or Russia.