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Already saddled with an estimated $45 million cost, Trump's joint birthday celebration-turned-Army parade honoring the branch's 250th anniversary is raising concerns.
Some are warning it could have unexpected repercussions, including causing millions in damage to DC streets that will cost taxpayer dollars.
The cost to repair streets damaged by the planned parade on Saturday, June 14 may top $16 million, according to multiple reports, as the cost for the event continues to rise, though the president thinks the cost is worth it, calling it "peanuts compared to the value of it," during an interview on "Meet the Press" last month, according to NBC.
"We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world," he reportedly said. "We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it."
The total cost of the parade is reportedly approaching, and may have exceeded the $45 million price tag.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser previously cautioned that the parade "would not be good," noting that "if military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”
Thousands of soldiers are expected to march through a stretch of downtown DC, joined by hundreds of military vehicles, including tanks and other APCs that are expected to damage roadways in the area.
According to NBC Washington, the Army is taking steps to mitigate damage and harm done to DC streets along the parade route, which is also expected to cost millions.
On NPR, historian Joshua Zeitz, a contributing editor for Politico, said that the last military parade of this magnitude was in 1991 at the end of the first Gulf War.
Others were held at the end of wars and it celebrated the demobilization of large armies including the Civil War, and both World Wars.
"This is something that you would expect to see in countries like North Korea or the old Soviet Union or today's Russia, where, you know, strongmen effectively paraded their military and its equipment in an effort to intimidate perceived enemies abroad and at home," he told host Ari Shapiro.
"Our country was born of a very particular opposition to state power, state authority, to standing armies which could enforce that type of authority and power."
The parade is scheduled to begin at around 6:30 p.m. on June 14 on Constitution Avenue NW between 15th Street and 23rd Street, with Trump to deliver remarks.
The day will end with an enlistment and re-enlistment ceremony, a parachute demonstration by the Golden Knights and a fireworks display.
There are no plans scheduled for the Navy, or Marine Corps, which both celebrate 250th anniversaries later this year.
"For 250 years, the United States Army has played a vital role in defending America," officials said. "From the Revolutionary War to the present day, Americans have served selflessly–many sacrificing their lives–in defense of the country."
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