WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is having early discussions about a military parade in the nation's capital this summer, a long-held dream of President Donald Trump.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday the administration reached out to the city about holding a parade on June 14 that would stretch from Arlington, Virginia, where the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery are located, across the Potomac River and into Washington, D.C.
June 14 is Trump's 79th birthday.
The Army is in early discussions about potentially adding a parade to the Army's 250th birthday festival, which is scheduled June 14, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tanks parade past President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron on July 14, 2017, during Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris.
The White House in a statement said that "no military parade has been scheduled."
The Army birthday festival, which has been in the planning stages for about two years, is to include an array of activities and displays on the National Mall, including Army Stryker armored vehicles, Humvees, helicopters and other equipment.
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In a statement, Col. David Butler, an Army spokesman, said that "it's too early to say yet whether or not we're having a parade but we're working with the White House as well as several government agencies to make the celebration a national level event."
Trump in his first term proposed having a grand military parade in the U.S. after watching one in France on Bastille Day in 2017. Trump said after watching the two-hour procession along the famed Champs-Elysees that he wanted a grander one in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The event never happened due to expected high costs, with one estimate of a $92 million price tag, and logistical hangups.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade July 14, 2017, on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
"When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it," Trump said on social media in 2018.
Bowser, speaking at a news conference Monday, said she didn't know if the event was being "characterized as a military parade" but said military tanks rolling through the city's streets "would not be good."
"If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads," she said.
Takis Karantonis, the chair of the Arlington County Board, said in a statement that Secret Service contacted the county on Friday "regarding the possibility of a military parade to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army, but no further details were offered."
Karantonis said it was not clear what the scope of the parade would be but said, "I would hope the Federal Government remains sensitive to the pain and concerns of numerous active military and veteran residents, who have lost or might lose their jobs in recent federal decisions, as they reflect on how best to celebrate the Army's anniversary."
FILE - District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a news conference to address the impact of the proposed continuing resolution, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
Though Bowser was more matter-of-fact in her remarks Monday, the District of Columbia publicly mocked the idea of a military parade during Trump's first term.
The D.C. Council's official social media account said in a January 2019 post about winter weather that schools and government offices would still open on time, but then added: "The Giant Tank Parade: Still cancelled."
Months later, in June 2019, the account posted a Defense Department memo to show that the military opposed using tanks on city streets.
The latest parade plans were first reported by Washington City Paper on Sunday.
