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http://reverepress.com/news/dcs-mayor-just-best-response-trumps-military-parade/
DC’s Mayor just had the best response to Trump’s military parade
Posted By: S Nicholson February 7, 2018
President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to look into planning a large-scale military parade in the nation’s capital that would mirror the parade he attended last year in France for Bastille Day.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned the costs involved in bringing military vehicles, personnel and armaments for a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue — especially with the legislature still working out a long-term spending bill to fund the federal government.
Instead of a parade, they said, money should be directed to making sure the troops are ready for battle and better equipped to survive, and towards fixing military housing and VA hospital care.
Now, Trump’s idea for an expensive military parade with questionable optics is facing pushback from the capital city.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said that D.C. will not be paying for any part of Trump’s parade, and that Trump would have to fund it himself.
Bowser’s spokeswoman Anu Rangappa — who said D.C. officials have not yet been contacted formally about a parade — likened the funding quagmire to another of Trump’s ideas: the border wall with Mexico
“In the meantime, we do know that, just like the wall, he will have to pay for it,” Rangapa said.
Requests to fund the border wall have met strong resistance in Congress and has been at the crux of short-term funding bills and any immigration deal between both parties and the White House.
Washington D.C.’s legislative body, the D.C. Council, also appeared to reject the notion of a military parade on Twitter.
““The DC government will open on time today. DC Public Schools will open on time today. Sadly, the Giant Tank Parade is cancelled. Permanently,” the Council tweeted.
Still, Trump appears determined to hold the event — even if it could end up costing millions of dollars.
“President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.”
https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/...shing-back-on-hosting-trumps-military-parade/
The DC Government Is Already Pushing Back on Hosting Trump’s Military Parade
"Just like the wall, he will have to pay for it," Mayor Muriel Bowser's office says.
Written by Benjamin Freed | Published on February 7, 2018
Attention, comrades! A battle tank rolls through Red Square during a Russian military parade in 2010. Photograph via iStock.
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President Trump is reportedly going forward with his desire to roll troops, tanks, and other military hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue, but don’t look for much support from the city that would have to host his fantasized-about military parade. The DC government, which would presumably be a stakeholder in the planning and execution of any such event, says it will not bear the cost of staging it. Moreover, city officials have heard little—if anything—from their federal counterparts.
A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel Bowser told Washingtonian on Tuesday evening that the city has not received any official request from the White House or Pentagon about planning a military parade through downtown. Bowser’s office is more adamant the following morning: “We’re tracking media reports about the proposed parade and will have more to say when formal outreach begins,” says the mayor’s communications director, Anu Rangappa. “In the meantime, we do know that just like the wall, he will have to pay for it.”
The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that Trump, who was said to have fancied the idea of including tanks and missile launchers in January 2017 inaugural procession, became more adamant a military parade last July after attending Bastille Day festivities in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump started pushing even harder last month, the Post reports, when he reportedly told Defense Secretary James Mattis and the Pentagon’s top uniformed officials that, “I want a parade like the one in France.”
Setting aside Trump’s apparent unawareness of the folkways behind France’s Bastille Day celebration (it commemorates a popular uprising against homegrown tyranny), the logistics required to pull off a parade featuring heavy armored vehicles and thousands of troops, the construction of a presidential reviewing stand, and the security personnel required for a scene full of high-ranking dignitaries would be close to those used to carry out a presidential inauguration. And therein lies an inevitable conflict with the District. Even when the city’s residents disagree with the results of an election, their local government is still a necessary and willing participant in planning the winner’s swearing-in.
But city officials aren’t so eager to help out in staging an event that doesn’t seem to be pegged to anything more than satisfying the President’s military fetish. And they have reasons to be hesitant. Big parades are costly affairs. The District spent $20 million on the 2017 inauguration, and while the federal government later reimbursed that sum, the money still had to be set aside in the first place. Ultimately, DC may have little say in the matter, as the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House is a national historic site that’s controlled as much by the federal government as it is by the city. But inaugural expenses are associated with an event that happens on a regular schedule. There’s no line item in the city’s budget for planning an off-year parade, or any guarantee that the federal government would pay back the local governments that’d be dragooned into working the military parade.
And if history is any guide, the costs could quickly pile up. The last big military parade, in June 1991, featured 8,000 troops and lineups of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 72-ton M1 Abrams tanks crawling along 200,000 spectators on Constitution Avenue. While organizers originally estimated the day would cost $8 million, with $5 million coming from private donors, the final tab climbed to $12 million, with taxpayers footing the balance.
Moreover, though, the District’s reluctance to help plan a military parade may simply be a matter of taste. Expensive as it was, the 1991 parade was staged to mark the end of the Gulf War. The one last one before that, in 1946, celebrated the Allied victory in World War II. The present-day United States is not marking the conclusion of any foreign wars.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump wants the parade as way for people to “show their appreciation” for members of the US armed forces. Military appreciation isn’t exactly lacking though, between Memorial Day, Veterans Day, memorials, monuments, names of roadways, State of the Union addresses, benefit concerts, NFL games, and Michael Bay movies. But putting hardware on display at random isn’t a US tradition. Even President George W. Bush‘s “Mission Accomplished” stunt was crafted to celebrate, quite inaccurately, the end of “major combat operations” in Iraq. A military parade in 2018 might be seen as naked fetishism designed to satisfy the emotional needs of a President who is overwhelmingly despised by the city in which he resides.
Which makes DC officials’ immediate pushback on the notion understandable. “Military parade down the streets of DC to feed an insecure man’s fragile ego? That’d be a big no,” DC Council member Charles Allen wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. In a direct message with Washingtonian, Allen says he may try to introduce legislation aimed at blocking a parade.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...ump-over-military-parade-giant-tank-parade-is
D.C. Council hits Trump on military parade: 'Giant Tank Parade is cancelled'
By Avery Anapol - 02/07/18 11:36 AM EST 712
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Trump denounces Florida school shooting: 'We are all joined together as one American family'
TheHill.com
The D.C. Council mocked President Trump over his proposed military parade, which the Pentagon has confirmed is in the works.
The District’s legislative body on Wednesday tweeted out a graphic of a “no tanks” symbol.
“The DC government will open on time today. DC Public Schools will open on time today. Sadly, the Giant Tank Parade is cancelled. Permanently,” the tweet read.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that Trump had directed Pentagon officials to plan a military parade, which Pentagon and White House officials later confirmed.
Trump has floated the idea several times in the past and was particularly enthusiastic after viewing the Bastille Day military parade in Paris.
"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday also responded to the idea of the parade, saying through a spokeswoman that if Trump wants to hold a parade in D.C., “he will have to pay for it” himself.
Bowser’s spokeswoman said that D.C. officials have not been formally approached about logistics for the proposed parade, which the Post reported could possibly happen around Veterans Day.
Tags Donald Trump d.c. council Military parade
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http://thehill.com/homenews/news/37...rump-will-have-to-pay-for-his-military-parade
DC mayor's office: Like the wall, Trump would have to pay for military parade
By Max Greenwood - 02/07/18 10:42 AM EST 444
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Sen. Gillibrand, eyeing 2020 bid, rankles some Democrats
TheHill.com
A spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday ruled out any notion of the District paying for President Trump's proposed military parade, saying that Trump would have to pay for it himself.
Anu Rangappa said there has not yet been formal outreach to D.C. officials about the proposed parade.
"In the meantime, we do know that, just like the wall, he will have to pay for it," she said, referring to Trump's proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Funding requests for that project have hit staunch opposition in Congress.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Pentagon officials, at the behest of Trump, were beginning to plan a military parade in Washington, similar to the Bastille Day parade Trump attended in France last year.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later confirmed that such an event is in the works.
"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," she said. "He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."
While the plan is reportedly in its early stages, such a parade could cost millions of dollars. Military officials told the Post that they did not know how the U.S. would pay for such an event.
Trump has occasionally floated the idea of holding a parade in Washington to showcase the country's military might. He was reportedly awed last year when he attended a Bastille Day parade with French President Emmanuel Macron, which contained military displays.
Tags DC Mayor's Office Pentagon Donald Trump Military parade D.C. mayor
DC’s Mayor just had the best response to Trump’s military parade
Posted By: S Nicholson February 7, 2018
President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to look into planning a large-scale military parade in the nation’s capital that would mirror the parade he attended last year in France for Bastille Day.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned the costs involved in bringing military vehicles, personnel and armaments for a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue — especially with the legislature still working out a long-term spending bill to fund the federal government.
Instead of a parade, they said, money should be directed to making sure the troops are ready for battle and better equipped to survive, and towards fixing military housing and VA hospital care.
Now, Trump’s idea for an expensive military parade with questionable optics is facing pushback from the capital city.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said that D.C. will not be paying for any part of Trump’s parade, and that Trump would have to fund it himself.
Bowser’s spokeswoman Anu Rangappa — who said D.C. officials have not yet been contacted formally about a parade — likened the funding quagmire to another of Trump’s ideas: the border wall with Mexico
“In the meantime, we do know that, just like the wall, he will have to pay for it,” Rangapa said.
Requests to fund the border wall have met strong resistance in Congress and has been at the crux of short-term funding bills and any immigration deal between both parties and the White House.
Washington D.C.’s legislative body, the D.C. Council, also appeared to reject the notion of a military parade on Twitter.
““The DC government will open on time today. DC Public Schools will open on time today. Sadly, the Giant Tank Parade is cancelled. Permanently,” the Council tweeted.
Still, Trump appears determined to hold the event — even if it could end up costing millions of dollars.
“President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.”
https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/...shing-back-on-hosting-trumps-military-parade/
The DC Government Is Already Pushing Back on Hosting Trump’s Military Parade
"Just like the wall, he will have to pay for it," Mayor Muriel Bowser's office says.
Written by Benjamin Freed | Published on February 7, 2018
Attention, comrades! A battle tank rolls through Red Square during a Russian military parade in 2010. Photograph via iStock.
Tweet Share
President Trump is reportedly going forward with his desire to roll troops, tanks, and other military hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue, but don’t look for much support from the city that would have to host his fantasized-about military parade. The DC government, which would presumably be a stakeholder in the planning and execution of any such event, says it will not bear the cost of staging it. Moreover, city officials have heard little—if anything—from their federal counterparts.
A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel Bowser told Washingtonian on Tuesday evening that the city has not received any official request from the White House or Pentagon about planning a military parade through downtown. Bowser’s office is more adamant the following morning: “We’re tracking media reports about the proposed parade and will have more to say when formal outreach begins,” says the mayor’s communications director, Anu Rangappa. “In the meantime, we do know that just like the wall, he will have to pay for it.”
The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that Trump, who was said to have fancied the idea of including tanks and missile launchers in January 2017 inaugural procession, became more adamant a military parade last July after attending Bastille Day festivities in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump started pushing even harder last month, the Post reports, when he reportedly told Defense Secretary James Mattis and the Pentagon’s top uniformed officials that, “I want a parade like the one in France.”
Setting aside Trump’s apparent unawareness of the folkways behind France’s Bastille Day celebration (it commemorates a popular uprising against homegrown tyranny), the logistics required to pull off a parade featuring heavy armored vehicles and thousands of troops, the construction of a presidential reviewing stand, and the security personnel required for a scene full of high-ranking dignitaries would be close to those used to carry out a presidential inauguration. And therein lies an inevitable conflict with the District. Even when the city’s residents disagree with the results of an election, their local government is still a necessary and willing participant in planning the winner’s swearing-in.
But city officials aren’t so eager to help out in staging an event that doesn’t seem to be pegged to anything more than satisfying the President’s military fetish. And they have reasons to be hesitant. Big parades are costly affairs. The District spent $20 million on the 2017 inauguration, and while the federal government later reimbursed that sum, the money still had to be set aside in the first place. Ultimately, DC may have little say in the matter, as the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House is a national historic site that’s controlled as much by the federal government as it is by the city. But inaugural expenses are associated with an event that happens on a regular schedule. There’s no line item in the city’s budget for planning an off-year parade, or any guarantee that the federal government would pay back the local governments that’d be dragooned into working the military parade.
And if history is any guide, the costs could quickly pile up. The last big military parade, in June 1991, featured 8,000 troops and lineups of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 72-ton M1 Abrams tanks crawling along 200,000 spectators on Constitution Avenue. While organizers originally estimated the day would cost $8 million, with $5 million coming from private donors, the final tab climbed to $12 million, with taxpayers footing the balance.
Moreover, though, the District’s reluctance to help plan a military parade may simply be a matter of taste. Expensive as it was, the 1991 parade was staged to mark the end of the Gulf War. The one last one before that, in 1946, celebrated the Allied victory in World War II. The present-day United States is not marking the conclusion of any foreign wars.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump wants the parade as way for people to “show their appreciation” for members of the US armed forces. Military appreciation isn’t exactly lacking though, between Memorial Day, Veterans Day, memorials, monuments, names of roadways, State of the Union addresses, benefit concerts, NFL games, and Michael Bay movies. But putting hardware on display at random isn’t a US tradition. Even President George W. Bush‘s “Mission Accomplished” stunt was crafted to celebrate, quite inaccurately, the end of “major combat operations” in Iraq. A military parade in 2018 might be seen as naked fetishism designed to satisfy the emotional needs of a President who is overwhelmingly despised by the city in which he resides.
Which makes DC officials’ immediate pushback on the notion understandable. “Military parade down the streets of DC to feed an insecure man’s fragile ego? That’d be a big no,” DC Council member Charles Allen wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. In a direct message with Washingtonian, Allen says he may try to introduce legislation aimed at blocking a parade.
Don’t miss a new restaurant again: Subscribe to our weekly newsletters.
http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...ump-over-military-parade-giant-tank-parade-is
D.C. Council hits Trump on military parade: 'Giant Tank Parade is cancelled'
By Avery Anapol - 02/07/18 11:36 AM EST 712
9,414
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Trump denounces Florida school shooting: 'We are all joined together as one American family'
TheHill.com
The D.C. Council mocked President Trump over his proposed military parade, which the Pentagon has confirmed is in the works.
The District’s legislative body on Wednesday tweeted out a graphic of a “no tanks” symbol.
“The DC government will open on time today. DC Public Schools will open on time today. Sadly, the Giant Tank Parade is cancelled. Permanently,” the tweet read.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that Trump had directed Pentagon officials to plan a military parade, which Pentagon and White House officials later confirmed.
Trump has floated the idea several times in the past and was particularly enthusiastic after viewing the Bastille Day military parade in Paris.
"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday also responded to the idea of the parade, saying through a spokeswoman that if Trump wants to hold a parade in D.C., “he will have to pay for it” himself.
Bowser’s spokeswoman said that D.C. officials have not been formally approached about logistics for the proposed parade, which the Post reported could possibly happen around Veterans Day.
Tags Donald Trump d.c. council Military parade
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http://thehill.com/homenews/news/37...rump-will-have-to-pay-for-his-military-parade
DC mayor's office: Like the wall, Trump would have to pay for military parade
By Max Greenwood - 02/07/18 10:42 AM EST 444
7,403
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Sen. Gillibrand, eyeing 2020 bid, rankles some Democrats
TheHill.com
A spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday ruled out any notion of the District paying for President Trump's proposed military parade, saying that Trump would have to pay for it himself.
Anu Rangappa said there has not yet been formal outreach to D.C. officials about the proposed parade.
"In the meantime, we do know that, just like the wall, he will have to pay for it," she said, referring to Trump's proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Funding requests for that project have hit staunch opposition in Congress.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Pentagon officials, at the behest of Trump, were beginning to plan a military parade in Washington, similar to the Bastille Day parade Trump attended in France last year.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later confirmed that such an event is in the works.
"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," she said. "He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."
While the plan is reportedly in its early stages, such a parade could cost millions of dollars. Military officials told the Post that they did not know how the U.S. would pay for such an event.
Trump has occasionally floated the idea of holding a parade in Washington to showcase the country's military might. He was reportedly awed last year when he attended a Bastille Day parade with French President Emmanuel Macron, which contained military displays.
Tags DC Mayor's Office Pentagon Donald Trump Military parade D.C. mayor
