Trump Will Become 1st Sitting POTUS To Attend NYC Veterans Day Parade
President Donald Trump will make history on Monday when he will become the first sitting president to attend the New York City Veterans Day Parade.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the parade, which is one of the largest Veterans Day events in the country, according to Military Times.
Doug McGowan, the chairman of the board of the United War Veterans Council, made the announcement about Trump’s participation on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.
“I am proud to announce — honored to announce — that the commander in chief has accepted our invitation and will be leading the New York City Veterans Day Parade, the centennial, this year,” McGowan said.
He said that this is the first time a sitting president will be attending, though the invitation has gone out every year for the past 35 years.
“Citizen Donald Trump in the ’80s, the ’90s and again in the early 2000s has been here for the veterans’ community of New York,” he said.
Veterans advocate Bill White, appearing with McGowan, said that Trump stepped in with a “ginormous check,” to save the Veterans Day Parade back in the 1990s.
The New York Times reported in November 1995 that the organizers of the parade had just $1.21 in their bank account in August of that year.
They had reached out to 200 corporations asking for help, including military contractors, but had received nothing.
McGowan told The Times that Trump made a donation of $350,000 to the event in 1995.
Additionally, in 1985, the then-New York businessman donated over $1 million toward the construction of a memorial plaza for Vietnam veterans in the city.
“[Trump] has been a friend to our veterans for many, many, many years … We are so grateful to our president,” White said on Fox. “We have a great commander in chief.”
White said this year’s parade will include 30,000 veterans and 400 military units.
The veterans advocate touted Trump’s record of supporting those who have served.
“The president has done more for our veterans in the last three years than what so many of us have been trying to do for decades,” White said.
“The choice that he’s giving veterans to be able to go to a doctor and not have to wait on a line and potentially die — we lost a lot of veterans to … bad incidents at the VA,” he added. “He’s also getting rid of employees at the VA who aren’t taking care of veterans. So he’s doing a lot.”
The New York Post reported that Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger will serve as the parade’s honorary grand marshal.
The parade will also feature five other grand marshals representing five generations of service from World War II to the Iraq war.
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