Donald Trump has long mused about wanting to hold a military parade, of the style long held in North Korea and other dictatorships, although the direct inspiration was reportedly a French exercise held in 2017, on Bastille Day. In 2018, Trump went far down the road in planning a military parade, at a reported cost of $92 million, although it was scuttled after a dispute with local officials in Washington.
Now, amid both a stock market meltdown and high-profile efforts at “government efficiency,” it looks like the parade is finally happening.
The Washington City Paper is reporting that Trump is planning to finally host the parade on Saturday, June 14, which is both the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and Trump’s own 79th birthday. The parade, according to plans, will “stretch almost four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington to the White House.”
Trump is getting his massive military parade, expected to costs $10s of millions, set for June 14 in DC. https://t.co/oh2LNrZAE1
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) April 7, 2025
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“It’s not clear to me what the scope of a parade would be,” Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis told the paper. “But I would hope the federal government remains sensitive to the pain and concerns of numerous [military] veteran residents who have lost or might lose their jobs in recent federal decisions, as they reflect on how best to celebrate the Army’s anniversary.”
It doesn’t appear that Washington’s Mayor Muriel Bowser, who fought the parade plans last time, is up for a similar fight now.
Trump wanted this military parade in DC so much in his first term — even after the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs bluntly told him in the Oval Office ‘it’s what dictators do,’ per our reporting in The Divider w/@peterbakernyt https://t.co/iKcQaV0WJT pic.twitter.com/w1ECtWq0jr
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) April 7, 2025
According to the reporting in one book about Trump’s first term, the then-vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Paul J. Selva, objected to the idea of a military parade, declaring “‘it’s what dictators do.”
While Trump never got the military parade in his first term, he did include tanks in the July 4 celebration in 2019, leading to a total price tag of $13 million that year, double what the event had cost to stage in previous years. Tanks did not return in 2020, although the Independence Day festivities were scaled down that summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
