D.C. officials pan plans for military parade

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The D.C. Council had a simple message on Twitter for President Donald Trump’s proposed grand military parade downPennsylvania Avenue: “Tanks, but no tanks.”

Local officials are panning the prospect of a show of military force that would leave the city government on the hook for security, cleanup and road repair — even if the federal government reimburses it later.

The remarks suggest the tensions ahead if Mr. Trump moves forward with the costly parade proposal in a city that overwhelmingly voted against him.

“I don’t think anyone believes this would be about trying to honor men and women who serve our country,” said Council member Charles Allen, D-Ward 6. “This would only be about feeding one man’s ego.”

Council member David Grosso, I-At Large, said that if the military parade is held, he would like to organize “an equally large parade and march for peace and for nonviolence” to take place simultaneously.

And Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Congress, weighed in on the directive Wednesday: “People will wonder, ‘Well, what are they afraid of now? What are they trying to prove?’”

It was a critique voiced by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers the day after The Washington Post revealed Mr. Trump wants an elaborate parade this year to rival the Bastille Day celebration in Paris that made a distinct impression on him in July.

In Europe, defense scholars immediately raised questions whether Mr. Trump’s desired military parade would really fall into the same category as France’s Bastille Day parade, which is held annually and is deeply rooted in the country’s history and values. Both parades would feature the respective nation’s military might, but they might still send very different messages, some European defense analysts and columnists cautioned.