Trump was apparently so impressed by the military parade he was invited to watch in France on Bastille Day that he's contemplating following in the footsteps of the French, and a handful of rogue dictators in third-world countries, with a U.S. military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. on July 4th.
As Trump pointed out during a press conference with Emmanuel Macron at the United Nations earlier, the event would offer an opportunity for America to reveal its "military strength" to the world. Luckily, Trump went on to reassure Macron that such an event shouldn't concern him because "we're friends."
As Trump gushed to Macron about the Bastille Day military parade in Paris that Trump attended in July as the French president’s guest, he said “It was a tremendous day, and to a large extent because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4th in Washington down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Trump said. “We’re going to have to try to top it, but we have a lot of planes going over and a lot of military might, and it was really a beautiful thing to see, and representatives from different wars and different uniforms.”
"And, to a large extent because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4th in Washington down Pennsylvania Avenue."
"But I came back [from France] and one of my early calls was I think we're going to have to start looking at that ourselves. So, we're actually thinking about 4th of July, Pennsylvania Avenue, having a really great parade to show our military strength."
"You know, we're spending this year $700 billion more than we've ever spent on the military, which is a good thing for you because we're friends."
Pres. Trump said he's considering having a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to show off "military strength" similar to France's Bastille Day. pic.twitter.com/A2g9R3jkyu
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 18, 2017
He added that one of his “early calls” after returning to Washington from the Bastille Day celebration was to begin planning for a similar U.S. military parade. Trump already has discussed the idea with White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, the president said.
“We’ll see if we can do it this year, but we certainly will be beginning to do that,” he said.
As a reminder, Trump had been thinking about large-scale military parades even before his Bastille Day visit to France, mentioning the idea in an interview published in the Washington Post in January before his inauguration.
“Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country,” Trump told the Washington Post. “And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military. “That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military,” he added.
Of course, we don't know exactly what the Trump administration has in mind at this point but we suspect it will look something like this.