Update: NBC News is reporting that the Defense Department has announced that the parade will be “postponed” to 2019.
The Pentagon said in a Thursday statement that it would “explore opportunities” in 2019 for President Donald Trump’s military parade that originally had been set for November of this year.
That development came just hours after CNBC reported that the parade had been shaping up to cost $80 million more than initially estimated.
See the original story below:
As President Trump‘s planned military parade in Washington D.C, gets closer to becoming a reality, new estimates on the event’s cost are now coming to light.
According to a report from CNBC, the Department of Defense an updated cost estimate puts the parade’s price tag at $92 million, which is $80 million more than original estimate that put the cost at $12 million.
The updated price tag is sure to bolster criticism of the parade which has come from both sides of the political aisle.
From CNBC:
The $92 million cost estimate includes security, transportation of parade assets, aircraft, as well as temporary duty for troops. [A Pentagon official] noted that while the size and scope of the military parade can still shift, the plans currently include approximately eight tanks, as well as other armored vehicles, including Bradleys, Strykers and M113s.
The official also said that experts put to rest concerns about whether the Abrams tank, which weighs just shy of 70 tons, would ruin infrastructure in Washington. Their analysis found that, because of the vehicle’s distributed weight and track pads, the streets of the nation’s capital would not be compromised.
The parade is also expected to include helicopter, fighter jet, transport aircraft as well as historical military plane flyovers. Troops in period uniforms representing the past, present and future forces will march in the parade, as well.
When Trump first floated the idea of a military parade, critics slammed the notion for being reminiscent of the traditions of totalitarian governments and military dictatorships. Although Trump reportedly got the idea during his trip to France where he was impressed by the country’s Bastille Day parade, some say he had the idea before that. His presidential transition team reportedly pushed for a “Red Square/North Korea-style” inaugural parade complete with columns of troops, tanks, and missile launchers — an idea that was initially rejected by the Pentagon.
Our 72-year-old President with an approval rating well below 50% is throwing a military parade for himself, but please tell me more about how millennials all want “participation trophies”.
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) August 16, 2018
In a piece for Lawfare this February, Dakota S. Rudesill writes that a “Red Square-style parade in America would send the wrong signal to the world at the wrong time.”
“A quarter century after democracy’s apparent triumph in the Cold War, China and Russia are trying to sell the world on the propositions that American democracy, ideals, and traditions do not work, and that militaristic authoritarian regimes running crony-capitalist economies are the future,” Rudesill writes. “Republics from Turkey up through Eastern Europe are sliding into illiberal—i.e., increasingly authoritarian—democracy. With a national security interest in the global progress of liberty, it is not in our interest to see American troops ordered to participate in a spectacle that to much of the world would look like parades in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Russia today, and a host of other dictatorships including North Korea.”
Speaking to CNBC, a spokesperson for the Pentagon said that the Defense Department would make an announcement about the updated cost soon.
The parade is expected to start at the Capitol, continue past the White House, and end at the National Mall.
Featured image via Medium
