President Donald Trump on Tuesday updated expectations for his proposed military parade in Washington, DC, suggesting that it would be more of a “gathering.”
“It’ll be a, really a gathering as opposed to a parade I guess you’d have to say,” he said, calling the proposed event a “salute to America.”
The president discussed the idea during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
He suggested the event would possibly be held on Independence Day at the Lincoln Memorial, adding that he hoped that it could be a tradition.
“The fireworks is there anyway, so we just saved on fireworks, we get free fireworks because it’s already being done,” he said.
Trump said that his acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan was exploring the idea at his request.
The president’s desire for a military parade in Washington, DC, is well known but remains unfulfilled.
Impressed by the grand military parade in Paris for Bastille Day in 2017, Trump expressed eagerness to host a similar parade in the United States.
The proposed parade was estimated to cost $92 million, before Trump postponed it in August 2018.
“Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN,” Trump said at the time:
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
….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
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.