The President of the United States of America crossed out the Veteran’s Day military parade that was supposed to take palace in the month of November, stating that the cost to hold such a parade is exorbitantly high.
Donald trump took to his twitter handle accusing the politicians for the increase in prices, even though the money bag of approximately 92 million dollars was even distributed in covering the costs of the air planes, equipment’s and employees.
Trump stated that maybe a military parade was on the cards when the price “comes WAY DOWN.” No explanation was given as to how the prices would be bought down.
Donald trump tweeted that – “…. Attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Airforce 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!”
In response to this Colonel Rob Manning, a representative of the White House, mentioned that the defense department and the White House have now come on the same page to find more opportunities in the year 2019.
This particular news came a few hours after The Associated Press claimed that the military would cost $ 92 million, as per the U.S. government officials citing that initial estimates more than the cost first tabled by the White House.
According to the people working on this case, approx. $50 million would be used to bear the costs by the Pentagon on airplane, equipment and different types of support for the parade supposed to take place in the month of November in Washington. The left over money would be used by other firms and mostly cover the security costs. The officials talked only on the condition that their names would be anonymous to talk about initial planning costs that have not been fixed or been released in the open.
Officials have said that the plans for the parade have not been given a go ahead by the Defense secretary Jim Mattis.
Jim Mattis himself admitted that there is no set cost for the Military parade.
The Pentagon Head told the journalists travelling with him to Bogota, Colombia, that the person responsible for outing the quoted estimate to the press was “probably smoking something that is legal in my state but not in most” – a direct example of his home town of Washington, where marijuana is legal.
Pentagon’s chief also added: “I’m not dignifying that number ($92 million) with a reply. I would discount that, and anybody who said (that number), I’ll almost guarantee you one thing: They probably said, ‘I need to stay anonymous.’ No kidding, because you look like an idiot. And No.2, whoever wrote it needs to get better sources. I’ll just leave it at that.”
The issue that concerns the cost behind the military parade has become a politically driven issue, right after the Pentagon called off a major military exercise that was supposed to take place with South Korea in the month of august, in lieu of Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un. Trump issued a statement that not going ahead with the deal saved the U.S. millions of dollars.
Groups from all the five armed forces- Navy, Army, Airforce, Coast Guard and the Marine Corps were to attend the parade. The Military parade was expected to involve a lot of Military aircraft flyovers as well. The White House budget director made it clear to the Congress that the price to the taxpayers could be well between $10 million to $30 million. The quoted estimates were most probably on the basis of the costs of the military parades that were held earlier, for example the one that took place in the year 1991 to celebrate the Gulf War, and added to the increase in inflation.
In the end we come to only one conclusion that Donald Trump is a two faced man as he decided that he wants a full blown military parade after he saw France’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris last year. Trump watched the show with much curiosity as the French military showed its tanks and fighter jets, including many planes that were manufactured by the United States of America, along the equally famous Champs- Elysees.
Trump talked a lot about the French military parade and made a controversial statement saying, “We’re going to have to try and top it.”
Written by-
Ruchit Rastogi