Trump's military parade could be postponed until 2019, official says

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August 17, 2018 3:59 AM

“We originally targeted Nov. 10, 2018, for this event, but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019,” Col. Robert Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

A military parade ordered up by President Donald Trump and planned for Veterans Day this year could be postponed until 2019, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The abrupt decision to look into changing the parade date came as Defense Department officials said the event could end up costing more than $90 million and as the Pentagon emerges from years of required budget caps.

Defense Department officials said the White House made the decision Thursday after seeing the new proposed price tag.

While department officials said the plans for the parade had not been finished, they allowed that the event could cost as much as $92 million, as first reported by CNBC, depending on how many troops are involved.

Previous estimates said the parade could cost $10 million to $30 million, about the same as one held in Washington in 1991 at the end of the Persian Gulf War.

Already, veterans groups were criticizing the anticipated parade as too expensive.

“Until such time as we can celebrate victory in the war on terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veterans Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible,” said Denise Rohan, the national commander of the American Legion.

Soon after he was elected, Trump and his advisers floated the idea of a parade of military convoys through Washington. The committee planning his inaugural ceremony reportedly explored, but rejected, the idea of highlighting military equipment in the traditional parade, from the Capitol to the White House, after Trump was sworn in.

In July 2017 in Paris, Trump saw firsthand the full potential and grandeur of a military parade as he sat alongside President Emmanuel Macron of France and by all accounts enjoyed a Bastille Day celebration. Upon returning home, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted a similar parade in the United States.

Mattis was not enamored of the idea, according to two other Defense Department officials. But the defense secretary, who carefully picks his battles with Trump, has since gone ahead with plans in tandem with a long-running Veterans Day parade in Washington.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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