President Donald Trump‘s military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. will cost exponentially more than originally projected. Last month U.S. Defense Dept. officials told CNN the parade, which Trump demanded after seeing one in France on Bastille Day, would cost American taxpayers $12 million.
But a new report from the Defense Dept. projects the parade will cost almost eight times as much as originally stated. The new projection is $92 million, $80 million more than first told, as The Hill notes.
“The parade will take place in the nation’s capital on Nov. 10 and will feature armored vehicles, aircraft flyovers and period uniforms,” CNBC reports.
Last month, just as the parade numbers were coming out, President Trump canceled decades-old U.S. Military exercises with South Korea, which Trump at the time called “tremendously expensive.” Those exercises were expected to cost $14 million, and serve to help protect both the U.S. and South Korea.
Trump’s military parade will distract the U.S. Armed Forces, who are currently fighting wars around the world in at least seven countries, from protecting the nation, and put our service members at unnecessary risk here at home.
Not once during his entire tenure as Commander-in-Chief has Trump bothered to fly to spend time with troops fighting overseas.
Back in March, as plans were coming together for Trump’s parade, many on social media lambasted the Commander-in-Chief, saying the millions spent of his vanity project could be better spent of feeding and housing homeless veterans.
There are about 40,000 homeless veterans across the nation. Trump could hand each of them $2300 for the cost of his parade.
Image: DoD photo by EJ Hersom via Flickr and a CC license