Trump: I Canceled Military Parade Because of Dishonest DC Politicians
After publicly pursuing a controversial plan for a military parade in the nation’s capital later this year, President Donald Trump reversed course in a pair of tweets Friday morning.
A number of military officials and politicians bristled at Trump’s plan based on the cost and complexity of putting together such an elaborate display, among other factors.
Reports earlier this week indicated the parade would come with a price tag of about $92 million.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, however, pushed back on those reports, saying he would not be “dignifying that number with a reply” and implying the source was high on marijuana when he or she came up with the figure.
“I’ll almost guarantee you one thing: They probably said, ‘I need to stay anonymous,'” Mattis added. “No kidding, because you look like an idiot. And number two, whoever wrote it needs to get better sources. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Whatever the final estimate was, the cost was apparently too steep for the White House.
The president blamed “local politicians” for artificially inflating the cost, promising to postpone the parade until “the cost comes WAY DOWN.”
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 local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” he tweeted.
“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!”
One of the D.C. politicians referenced in his first tweet wasted little time capitalizing on the exposure of the presidential post.
Muriel Bowser, the district’s Democratic mayor, posted a reply to his tweet in which she accepted her role in his decision to cancel the parade.
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). https://t.co/vqC3d8FLqx
— Muriel Bowser (@MurielBowser) August 17, 2018
“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),” she wrote.
Trump announced his plans to “go to the Paris parade” instead, apparently referring to an Armistice Day event later this year in the French capital.
….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
“I will instead … 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,” Trump wrote.
“Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!”
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