President faults city for canceled military parade
D.C. mayor disputes Trump claim $21M price tag inflated
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Washington, D.C., officials for his decision to postpone a grand military parade in the city this fall, alleging without evidence that they had unreasonably inflated the price for the event.
“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “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.”
Trump said it is possible that the parade can be held next year if the cost “comes WAY DOWN” and added that with the savings “we can buy some more jet fighters!”
His tweets came a day after Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military and the White House had “agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”
About an hour after the president’s tweet, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, delivered her own response on Twitter, indicating that the desired parade would have cost $21.6 million to organize in the nation’s capital. The federal government typically reimburses the District of Columbia for a large share of the security and logistical costs for such events.
“Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/ events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad),” Bowser tweeted.
Bowser said in a later interview that she found the accusation that D.C. officials were trying to exaggerate the city’s security costs galling, especially since the city had been working to plan the event with little lead time.
“The notion that we would overstate what it takes to properly have a parade or demonstration, especially on this short notice, for some benefit to the city — it was just outrageous,” Bowser said. “It’s pretty clear that the president is upset about the parade, and it appears that he didn’t want to take on his own agencies … or the Pentagon, so he decided that we were a good target.”
Although the president has long discussed a potential military parade, it was only on Aug. 8 that Bowser received a letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen saying the event would take place “on or about Nov. 10, 2018” and discussing the need for planning and coordination with city agencies.
The White House Office of Management and Budget did not approach D.C. city officials until Tuesday to discuss logistical costs, a Bowser administration official said.
The White House had scant details about the event, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the negotiations with the president’s team. There was no indication of how long the parade would last — including whether it would span multiple days — or confirmation of the Nov. 10 date, the official said. There was no precise route specified, or estimates for the number of people or pieces of military equipment that would be involved.
The Office of Management and Budget requested that the city, despite the lack of detail, produce ballpark estimates of how much it would have to spend — and be reimbursed — in order to provide security and other services.
The city’s estimates, which were finalized Thursday, included $13.5 million for police, $3.6 million for fire and paramedics, $2.3 million for transportation services — including traffic control and work on Pennsylvania Avenue before and after the event — and a number of lesser expenses.
In a statement Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman provided no reason for the apparent postponement, which came during a spate of news reports that the event, which is expected to include aircraft, vehicles, period uniforms and symbols of U.S. power, could cost up to $92 million, far more than originally estimated.
That figure includes expenses borne by the Pentagon beyond what the city would bear.
Defense Secretary James Mattis later told reporters that he “had received no such estimate” and that he would “discount that.”
Large military parades have been rare in recent U.S. history, though the George H.W. Bush administration staged a military parade in Washington in 1991 after the conclusion of the Persian Gulf War.
Earlier this year, a senior Trump administration official said the parade would probably cost between $10 million and $30 million.
Some leading Democrats in Congress have also argued that the parade envisioned by Trump would be wasteful.
“I know President Trump really wants to lead a big military parade past his D.C. hotel, but a real leader wouldn’t put his own wishes above what’s best for our troops,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Friday. “Spending $100 million on this parade is beyond wasteful. Defense dollars would be better spent equipping our troops, caring for veterans, and enhancing national security.”