Former reality show star Donald Trump, who avoided serving in the military, wanted a big fancy military parade thrown for him on Veterans Day, but the Department of Defense on Thursday announced that it’s being postponed until next year. The costs for the unnecessary event is estimated to cost $92 million, according to a U.S. defense official. That’s a tad bit more than the $12 million the White House said it would cost. Predictably, Trump blamed local politicians in D.C. for the costs of his ego-parade.
“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” he tweeted. “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. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…”
The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. 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. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
….attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
Of course, that makes no sense. If our military needs more ‘jet fighters,’ and he initially opted for a military parade instead, then that’s kind of weird.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser torched Trump on Twitter, stating that she was the one who “finally got thru to the reality star in the White House.
“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),” she tweeted.
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). https://t.co/vqC3d8FLqx
— MurielBowser (@MurielBowser) August 17, 2018
And because facts matter, I’ll just leave this here.
🤔 $50M of the $92M estimate was for the Pentagon’s own costs, the rest for other agencies largely for security costs. Not sure how “local politicians” are responsible for the price tag here https://t.co/tPXdK5hRjW
— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) August 17, 2018
Image: AFGE via Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0.