Donald Trump could be receiving a hand-delivered gift from the Army during next month’s military parade planned for the same day as his birthday.
There have been discussions about having members of the Golden Knights, the Army parachute team, fly down onto the streets of Washington D.C. during the June 14 event to give Trump an American flag, according to The New York Times.
The massive parade, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, just so happens to fall on Trump’s 79th birthday. Organizers are eager to emphasize that the event is not being held in his honor to avoid the suggestions that the spectacle resemble something out of a dictatorship.
In order to stress the separation, Army officials told The Times that there are no plans to sing “Happy Birthday” to Trump at the June 14 military event.
But the effort to avoid a link to Trump appears somewhat tokenistic: The Army did not have a parade for its 200th anniversary, had no plans for the parade before Trump took office, and the last military parade in the capital was in 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait.
Further details of the parade have also emerged, including the sheer military might on display: 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker combat vehicles, around 6,700 marching soldiers, and 50 helicopters. There will also be 34 horses, two mules, and even a dog in the parade.
The procession is expected to pass by Trump’s viewing stand on Constitution Avenue near the White House. It’s not yet confirmed if that’s where he’ll receive the flag from the Golden Knights.
Trump made use of the Golden Knights during the July 4 “Salute To America” celebrations in 2020, which included flyovers by military aircraft.
The estimated cost of the parade is between $25 million to $45 million. However, this figure does not include the major clean-up operation which would be ended afterwards, or the cost of repairing D.C.’s roads after the mammoth M1A1 Abrams tanks have driven on them.
“It’s a lot of money,” Army spokesman Steve Warren told The Times. “But I think that amount is dwarfed by 250 years of service and sacrifice by America’s Army.”
The White House declined to detail parade plans to the Daily Beast, but defended its scale.
“There is no event grand enough to adequately capture our gratitude for the millions of heroes who laid down their lives defending our freedom, but this parade will be a fitting tribute to the service, sacrifice, and selflessness of all who have worn the uniform,” said White House deputy press Secretary Anna Kelly.
She added that the cost will be shared by the Department of the Army and the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission.
Questions are being raised about the timing and cost of the event, especially given the Trump administration’s push for federal budget cuts, including slashing tens of thousands of jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Risa Brooks, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, also asked whether the parade will make it appear like it is a celebration of Trump – a partisan move the likes of which the Pentagon has long sought to avoid – rather than itself.
“Having tanks rolling down streets of the capital doesn’t look like something consistent with the tradition of a professional, highly capable military,” Brooks told The Times. “It looks instead like a military that is politicized and turning inwardly, focusing on domestic oriented adversaries instead of external ones.”
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