By Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
The Trump administration bulldozed ahead Wednesday with plans to throw a grand military parade on the president’s request, ignoring bipartisan criticism that such a public demonstration of power is characteristic of authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China.
The White House dragged out Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to brief reporters on Trump’s ordering the Pentagon last month to start planning an armed forces parade through the nation’s capital.
“We all know the president of the United States’ affection for the military,” Mattis said, adding that Trump’s parade request reflects his respect for the military.
Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, declined to answer questions about how the parade would be paid for or when it would take place, adding that the Pentagon is actively “putting together some options.”
Mattis’ answers did not quell a chorus of criticism, with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress lambasting Trump for acting like an autocratic ruler.
“I think confidence is silent and insecurity is loud,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters. “America is the most powerful country in all of human history, everybody knows it, and we don’t need to show it off …We’re not North Korea, we’re not Russia, and we’re not China and I don’t want to be. And for that reason I would be against flaunting our strength. We don’t need to, everybody knows we have it.”
Democrats and veterans advocates directed their ire at the steep expense likely involved in throwing a massive parade featuring rolling tanks and marching soldiers.
“At a time of war, with American service members serving in harm’s way, such a parade seems to be inappropriate and wasteful,” Democratic Sens. Jack Reed, Dick Durbin, Gary Peters and Patrick Leahy wrote in a letter demanding that the Pentagon put out an estimated price tag for the parade.
“Every penny of the millions of dollars that the parade would cost and every second of the tens of thousands of personal hours its execution would require, should be devoted to the most essential missions of the Department of Defense — protecting the American people and our security interests.”
Department of Defense spokesman Jamie Davis declined to affirm whether the military would foot the bill, only telling the New York Daily News in an email that the Pentagon is “in the process of determining details.” The White House would not comment on how the parade would be funded.
Will Fischer, an Iraq War U.S. Marine veteran and spokesman for VoteVets, excoriated Mattis’ suggestion that Trump’s parade request was motivated by his deep “affection” for the military.
“This all revolves around the simple fact that this has nothing to do with the military and military families, but everything to do with Donald Trump forcing the military to publically salute him,” Fischer told the Daily News on Wednesday afternoon.
If Trump is honestly interested in helping the armed forces, Fischer said, he should stop his “campaign to privatize the VA and gutting federal programs that serve veterans.”
“If he wants to support the military he can quit his attacks on gold star families and start leading with diplomacy and not schoolyard bullying via Twitter,” Fischer bluntly added.
Trump’s vision of a military march through the capital breaks with decades of American custom that such public displays of power are unnecessarily flashy.
