Trump wants to flash the armor
As many ask why, U.S. gathers options for military parade
WASHINGTON — The White House pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to throw a grand military parade through the streets of Washington, brushing aside criticism that such a display could be an unnecessary show of raw military power.
In a briefing to reporters, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the parade plan reflects President Donald Trump’s respect for the armed forces.
“We all know the president of the United States’ affection for the military,” Mattis said. He said the Pentagon has been “putting together some options” for the parade to send to the White House.
Widely accepted as the world’s mightiest, the U.S. military has no tradition of putting itself on parade like in Russia, North Korea, China or even close NATO ally France.
So Trump’s directive to the Pentagon to draft options for a massive march reverberated across Washington on Wednesday as lawmakers and military leaders mused about the cost, risk and purpose.
“People will wonder, ‘Well, what are they afraid of now? What are they trying to prove?’ ” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Congress. “We don’t have to show off to make a point.”
It was a critique voiced by both Democrats and Republicans the day after The Washington Post revealed Trump wants an elaborate parade this year to rival the Bastille Day celebration in Paris that made a distinct impression on him in July.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois called it a “fantastic waste of money,” while Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN that the parade risked being “kind of cheesy and a sign of weakness” if it’s just about showing off military muscle.
The president did not seem deterred, although his aides rushed to downplay the notion that it was anything beyond an idea Trump had floated “in a brainstorming session” to help Americans express gratitude and pride for the military.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there had been no final decision. And Trump’s legislative director said it was too early to guess about potential costs, though it’s assumed it would cost millions.
“We’ve been putting together some options. We’ll send them up to the White House for a decision,” Mattis said at the White House. “The president’s respect, his fondness for the military I think is reflected in him asking for these options.”
City officials were scrambling to identify potential implications for such a parade, such as whether D.C. streets could accommodate heavyweight tanks and other First lady Melania Trump, left, and President Donald Trump join French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, right, during France’s Bastille Day military parade in July. equipment.
The last time Washington saw anything similar to what Trump is considering was in June 1991, after the Gulf War, as Americans gave veterans of Operation Desert Storm a triumphant welcome home. Some 8,000 veterans marched along with tanks that trudged down a flag-festooned Constitution Avenue as fighter planes roared over the National Mall.
Some 800,000 gathered in the crowd, the U.S. Park Police said at the time. President George H.W. Bush declared it a “great day.”
Although Trump’s critics argued his parade idea was rooted in a need for self-aggrandizement, the White House said it was squarely an attempt to venerate America’s military.
Jonny Havens, an Army veteran who said he served in Iraq, called that sentiment “right on.”
“I t rust President Trump, Defense Department, Secretary Mattis to do it in the right way, and do it in a way that makes sense and is cost effective,” Havens said.
But Shaun Theriot- Smith, another Army veteran, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the idea smacked “of the very things we make fun of North Korea for.”
Trump first publicly floated his idea last September at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, as he reminisced about watching France’s Bastille Day military parade. He said the two-hour parade was a “tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France,” and said he wanted one on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on July 4 — grander than the one he saw in Paris.
When Trump first suggested the idea to top aides, staff debated the best time of year to have it and noted the tanks in Paris had chewed up the city’s pavement, throwing up chunks of concrete as they moved.
Trump, however, dismissed that concern, according to one person familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking.
That’s OK, Trump told them. The streets can be fixed, he said.