Army, Trump love a $40 million parade. But nothing is planned for Navy, Marines
Army, Trump love a $40 million parade. But nothing is planned for Navy, Marines
Show Caption
Hide Caption
White House plans parade for Trump's bday, Army's 250th anniversary
The White House is planning a massive military parade to celebrate the Army's 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump's 79th birthday.
WASHINGTON — The Army's latest estimate for its major parade to celebrate its 250th anniversary – which falls on President Donald Trump's birthday – totals $40 million, including the cost of repairing streets in Washington, DC expected to be gnawed by tank treads.
Meanwhile, the Navy, which also celebrates its 250th anniversary in October, has no plans for a similar parade, according to a spokesperson. The Marine Corps, too, has its 250th in November, and does not appear to have a parade on tap either.
That leads a Democratic senator and member of the Armed Services Committee to believe that the June 14 parade featuring tanks, helicopters, warplanes and troops in period costume is as much about feeding Trump's ego as it is celebrating the Army's heritage.
'It is Donald Trump who is the focus of his own attention, and the Army birthday just happened to be a convenient excuse,' said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut. 'He might well celebrate all our military services together since their birthdays are imminent.
'I'm all in favor of celebrating the anniversaries of our services in a more appropriate way but without the extravagant expenditure of funds that are vital to our military.'
More: Tanks, cannons and soldiers sleeping in DC offices: Inside Trump birthday military parade
The administration insists that the Army's anniversary and Trump's birthday are a coincidence and that the parade is justified to honor soldiers' sacrifice. Plans for the June 14 parade began in earnest about a month ago.
'The President is planning an historic celebration of the Army's 250th birthday that will honor generations of selfless Americans who have risked everything for our freedom,' Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley said in a statement last month.
Trump told NBC in May that the parade's cost was, 'Peanuts compared to the value of doing it."
The Army has acknowledged that the parade is costly, but says the expense justified. Tens of millions spent on a parade 'is dwarfed by 250 years of service and sacrifice by America's Army,' spokesman Steve Warren told reporters recently.
The Army's initial estimate for the parade covered a range from $25 to $45 million. But as the event nears the estimate has been refined and includes damage to streets and infrastructure anticipated from heavy armored vehicles, according to a Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly. It's unclear how much the Army has budgeted to repair expected damage.
The $40 million in taxpayer dollars will fund a parade featuring Abrams tanks, vintage World War II warplanes and thousands of soldiers marching in period uniforms to mark the nation's battles from the Revolutionary War to the present. A reviewing stand is being erected for Trump south of the White House.
Tanks shipped from Texas
The Army is shipping tanks from Texas by railroad to Washington for the parade, and soldiers from other posts around the country. They will be housed downtown in government buildings transformed into makeshift barracks with thousands of cots.
More: DC mayor worried tanks will chew up downtown streets in Army-Trump parade
Military parades, especially France's annual Bastille Day celebration, have captivated Trump. But celebrations of military might are more common in authoritarian regimes.
Every member of the Army participating in the parade, from private to general, will be expected to bunk in what the Army calls Life Support Areas, the official said. There are exceptions. Pvt. Doc Holliday being one.
Doc is a blue heeler hound and 'cherished member of Horse Cavalry Detachment, according to the First Cavalry Division. Doc will be staying in a hotel with his handler, the official said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stock Market Today: Nasdaq Rebounds On China Trade Talk Hopes; These New IPOs Shine As Dutch Bros Breaks Out (Live Coverage)
Stock Market Today: The Dow Jones rose Thursday on a call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi. Tesla stock skidded in early trading.
Atlantic
28 minutes ago
- Atlantic
Ukraine Got a Major Battle Victory. Trump Is Not Happy.
Ukraine's drone strikes deep into Russia delivered a humiliating blow to Moscow last weekend. Kyiv's defenders celebrated the attack as a triumph of modern warfare and a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the extraordinary operation got a different response inside the White House: anger. Donald Trump has openly vented in recent weeks about Putin's unwillingness to end the war. But since Sunday's attack, which hit a series of Russian military airfields, the president has privately expressed frustration that the strike could escalate the conflict, according to three administration officials and an outside adviser to the White House. (They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.) These sources told me that the drone strike has reignited the president's long-held displeasure with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and prompted a new debate in the White House about whether the United States should abandon Ukraine. Throughout the war, Trump has deemed Zelensky a 'bad guy' and a 'hothead,' the outside adviser said—someone who could be pushing the globe toward World War III. Trump privately echoed a right-wing talking point this week by criticizing Zelensky for supposedly showboating after the drone attacks; according to the adviser, Trump was impressed with the audacity of the strikes but believes that Zelensky's focus should have been on Ukraine-Russia negotiations in Istanbul. Trump spoke with Putin yesterday, and, in a readout of the call on Truth Social, the U.S. president relayed the Kremlin's plans to strike back against Ukraine. 'We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,' Trump wrote. 'It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.' Trump did not say whether he had warned Putin against retaliating, and two of the administration officials told me that he has not decided on his next steps. Officials have presented him with options that include sanctioning Russia and reducing American aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump told aides this week that he does not believe a summit with him, Zelensky, and Putin—which he once hoped would be a way to bring the war to a close—will happen any time soon, one of the administration officials told me. Trump, who on the campaign trail last year vowed to end the war within his first 24 hours in office, made a renewed push for a peace deal last month. While Zelensky agreed to an immediate cease-fire, Putin rejected the offer and ratcheted up his bombing of Ukrainian cities. That led Trump to threaten to walk away from peace talks, and to flash some rare ire at Putin. The president had hoped that some progress would be made in this week's talks in Turkey, but the meeting was overshadowed by the drone strikes and went nowhere. The White House has said that the U.S. was not told in advance about the surprise attack, which was carried out by drones hidden across five of Russia's time zones that hit nuclear-capable bombers and inflicted billions of dollars in damage, according to a preliminary estimate from the White House. Steve Bannon and other influential MAGA voices have berated Ukraine for the attack and are attempting to push Washington further from Kyiv. On his podcast this week, Bannon blamed Ukraine for, in his view, sabotaging peace talks while potentially provoking a massive response from Russia. 'Zelensky didn't give the president of the United States a heads-up to say he's going to do a deep strike into strategic forces of Russia, which is going up the escalatory ladder as quickly as you can, on the day before your meeting in Turkey?' Bannon said. 'On the eve of peace talks or cease-fire talks, he takes the Japanese role in Pearl Harbor—the sneak attack.' Bannon has conveyed similar messages to senior West Wing advisers, a fourth administration official told me. Keith Kellogg, Trump's Ukraine envoy, warned on Fox News that 'the risk levels are going way up' because the drones struck part of Russia's 'national survival system'—its nuclear program—potentially pushing Moscow to retaliate in significant ways. Trump has not increased aid to Ukraine since taking office again in January, and he has yet to endorse a bipartisan Senate push, led by his ally Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to impose harsh economic penalties against Russia and countries that do business with it. There have been other recent signs that the White House is distancing itself from Ukraine, too. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not attend a meeting of 50 defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels. In the past, the meeting has been an important venue for coordinating military aid for Ukraine. Hegseth was the first U.S. defense secretary to skip the event in three years. The Pentagon cited scheduling issues for his absence. When I asked a White House spokesperson for comment about the drone strikes, she pointed me to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's briefing-room remarks on Tuesday, when Leavitt said that Trump 'wants this war to end at the negotiating table, and he has made that clear to both leaders, both publicly and privately.' In public remarks about the strikes, Putin downplayed the chances of a cease-fire, asking, 'Who has negotiations with terrorists?' But Zelensky told reporters that the operation over the weekend, code-named Spider's Web, would not have been carried out if Putin had agreed to a U.S.-proposed truce. 'If there had been a cease-fire, would the operation have taken place?' Zelensky asked. 'No.' Exasperated with the conflict, Trump continues to muse about walking away from any sort of diplomatic solution. In his Truth Social post about his call with Putin, the president seemed eager to change the subject to focus on ending a different international crisis. 'We also discussed Iran,' Trump wrote about ongoing talks regarding Tehran's nuclear ambitions. 'President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.'
Forbes
29 minutes ago
- Forbes
Musk Digs Up Trump's 12-Year-Old Tweet To Attack His Policy Bill
Elon Musk directly jabbed President Donald Trump over his policy bill Thursday— in his most pointed attack on Trump himself—over the legislation Musk has previously mostly blamed Republican lawmakers for. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the ... More White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. (Photo by ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images) Musk reposted a 2013 tweet from Trump that said he was in disbelief and 'embarrassed' Republicans were extending the debt ceiling, captioning the repost 'wise words.' Trump on Wednesday said the debt limit should be 'entirely scrapped' as a provision of his 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' which would raise the debt ceiling ahead of its expected expiration date in August. This is a developing story and will be updated.
