President Donald Trump has planned an extravagant celebratory parade on Saturday to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Yet, despite the enthusiasm, two Republican senators said they would not have had such a parade.
Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and John Kennedy (R-LA) were not enthusiastic, according to Jennifer Griffin, chief national security correspondent for Fox News. Both senators expressed concern about the event’s estimated price tag of about $45 million. Paul also had some reservations about the celebration’s imagery.
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“Never been a big fan of goose-stepping soldiers in big tanks and missiles rolling down the street,” Paul said. “So if you asked me, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“I’m not sure what the actual expense of it is, but I’m not really — we were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea,” he added. “We were proud not to be that. And I don’t, I’m not proposing that that’s the image people want to project, but I’m worried about the image that it isn’t necessarily the best image to show.”
Kennedy, meanwhile, shared Paul’s fiscal concerns regarding the parade’s price tag.
“I wouldn’t spend the money if it were me,” Kennedy said. “The United States of America is the most powerful country in all of human history. We’re a lion, and a lion doesn’t have to tell you it’s a lion. Everybody else in the jungle knows, and we’re a lion.”
“I would save the money, but if the president wants to have a parade, he’s the president, and I’m not,” he added.
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Col. Chris Vitale, an officer who helped plan the celebration, described the vision for the parade.
“What’s unique about this parade is that the march units are going to be all designed around that specific conflict area, so you’ll see the ground platforms or aviation platforms that will be associated with that time period that will be timed with when that march unit passes through,” Vitale said.
The festivities will honor the history of the Army, telling its story from its origins in the Revolutionary War to the present day. It will feature a display of uniforms, military weapons, aircraft, and vehicles from each era. The parade will reportedly include a variety of military aircraft, such as Chinook, Apache, and Black Hawk helicopters, as well as bombers used over the years. It will also include land vehicles, such as Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Stryker vehicles, and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, according to reports.