Mayor of Washington D.C. Trolls Trump on Twitter, taking credit for reality-checking “the reality star in the White House.”
Trump took to Twitter on Friday, trying to hand off blame for the cancellation of his beloved military parade, originally schedule for November of this year.
“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. 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. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!”
The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. 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. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
….attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2018
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington D.C., was quick to respond, tweeting that she “got thru” to Trump about costs for the parade.
“Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad),” she tweeted.
Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad). https://t.co/vqC3d8FLqx
— MurielBowser (@MurielBowser) August 17, 2018
CNN followed up on Bowser’s tweet, reporting that:
Bowser’s office later provided a breakdown of the city’s cost estimate for hosting a military parade, which included a $13.5 million price tag for the city’s police department and the need for expenses like crowd control, security and traffic perimeters, and protection for dignitaries. A city official added that the Trump administration requested an estimate from the city this week.
Funds to cover the event would have needed to come from the federally funded Emergency Planning and Security Fund, which normally covers the security funds for events in the nation’s capital like a presidential inauguration or this past weekend’s Unite the Right rally.
But the amount allocated this year for such events was far smaller than the additional amount that would be required to cover the parade. It is likely, according to the official, that the administration would need to request additional money from Congress.
ABC News provided background regarding the cancellation of the parade and its associated estimated costs:
On Thursday, a U.S. official had told ABC News that the cost of the parade had risen to $92 million, a significant increase to initial estimates that it could cost $14 million.
“The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America’s military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,” said the statement issued Thursday night. “We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.”
The postponement comes on the heels of news that the cost of the parade had ballooned from its initial estimated price tag of $12 million. A U.S. official told ABC News on Thursday that the cost of the parade was now estimated to be $92 million.
The official stressed that the cost was an estimate that could vary, based off of a final decision on the scope of the parade made by Defense Secretary James Mattis. At the time, the secretary had still not signed off on the final plans for the parade.
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