The military parade that President Trump wanted following his trip to France has been canceled due to the high costs.
According to The Hill, the president said on Friday that he “was canceling plans for a military parade, blaming a $92 million price tag and local politicians in Washington, D.C.”
With reports estimating on Thursday the military parade would exceed $80 million during a time of rising debt, Trump took to Twitter saying “local politicians” were responsible for the rising price tag.
“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 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,” he added. “Now we can buy some more jet fighters!”
Estimates for the parade have varied, according to a CNBC report on Thursday. At one point, the Pentagon estimated a cost of $50 million while the Department of Homeland Security said it would need an additional $42 million.
“The CNBC report said the larger price tag highlighted by the federal government agencies was necessary to get the aircraft and other military equipment to the parade, to ensure security and to pay for the troops to be present, among other costs,” reports The Hill.
President Trump initially called for a military parade after viewing a similar one in France while visiting on Bastille Day. He had hoped his parade would be held on Veterans Day of this year.
“Because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4th in Washington down Pennsylvania [Avenue],” Trump said last September, after a visit to France. “We’re thinking … of having a really great parade, to show our military strength.”