Trump administration faces criticism over potential parade amid economic cuts

Amid economic chaos and massive government cuts, the Trump administration is in the midst of a new controversy this week.

It comes amid reports that the White House may be planning a giant military parade in June, timed for President Donald Trump’s birthday.

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., insists that the Trump administration reached out to district officials with early plans for a large parade set for the nation’s capital on June 14, which is both the 250th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Army and Trump’s 79th birthday.

Bowser says the Trump administration hasn’t specifically labeled it a military parade, but the timing and the route strongly suggest it, tentatively stretching from the Pentagon to the White House.

There’s no doubt that President Trump has wanted a large military parade in the past after he expressed admiration for a French military parade in 2017.

However, at that time, he was unhappily talked out of it after cost estimates came in at around $92 million just in military costs, plus $21 million in public safety costs.

This time, the mayor says the costs would likely be at least that much although again, she stresses it’s in the early stages.

“I think it was Homeland Security, maybe the White House reached out to our special events task force, which is what most people want to do a parade do in the district. So, I would say it’s early stages, yes, they have reached out,” Bowser said. ‘Yeah, military tanks on our streets would not be good. If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to prepare the roads.”

The White House is downplaying the reports saying, “no parade has been scheduled.”

But officials in Virginia also confirm they’ve been contacted, which would be for the portion of any parade on the Pentagon side of the Potomac River.

Critics are already blasting the idea, saying this kind of spending for this kind of event would send a bad message at a time of extreme government downsizing.

The white house says any criticism is “premature.”