What we know about the military parade on Trump's birthday (June 14)
A long-planned celebration in Washington for the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary will coincide with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday on Saturday.
While the Army has said it has no plans to recognize Trump's birthday, the president will play a major role in the celebrations, which have been altered to include a parade.
Here is everything we know so far:
Where is the military parade taking place?
There will be a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday morning, followed by a fitness competition and an Army birthday festival on the National Mall in Washington. The festival will include equipment displays and military demonstrations.
The day will culminate with a parade through the city and an enlistment and re-enlistment ceremony presided over by Trump. There will also be fireworks. After the parade, the U.S. Army Golden Knights team will parachute in and present Trump with a flag.
What military vehicles are being brought to Washington, D.C.?
The U.S. Army is bringing 6,500 troops into Washington, along with 150 vehicles and 50 aircraft for the celebration. The vehicles are being moved to the city on trains and larger trucks, while the helicopters will fly in.
The Army has said that more than 25 M1 Abrams tanks will feature in the parade. It will also include 28 Stryker armored vehicles, four Paladin self-propelled artillery vehicles, and artillery pieces including the M777 and M119.
The flyover will include Apache and Black Hawk helicopters along with Chinooks. Older aircraft like the World War Two-era B-25 bomber and P-51 Mustang will also take part.
The parade will include 34 horses, two mules and one dog.
What security measures are being taken for the military parade?
Law enforcement agencies are preparing for hundreds of thousands of people to attend the celebration, the U.S. Secret Service said.
Washington, D.C., has started to place non-scalable fences at key points around the city, including the White House.
Security preparations include 18.5 miles of anti-scale fencing and 17 miles of concrete barriers, while overhead drones operated by the Secret Service will keep watch.
Thousands of agents, officers and specialists will be deployed from law enforcement agencies from across the country. Officials said they are not expecting protests against federal immigration enforcement similar to those in Los Angeles. The Federal Aviation Administration will close down arrivals and departures at Washington's Reagan National Airport during the peak of the celebration.
How much is Trump's parade going to cost?
The twin celebrations will cost the U.S. Army between $25 million and $45 million, U.S. officials have told Reuters. That includes the parade itself as well as the cost of moving equipment and housing and feeding the troops.
The cost was several million dollars more than it would have been without a parade, the officials said.
The officials' latest estimates exclude costs the city of Washington would have to bear, like trash cleanup.
The military has already started taking steps to protect the streets of the capital from any potential damage caused by heavy tanks, including laying down metal plates in some areas. The Army says it will pay for any unexpected repairs if needed and has set aside several million dollars in case of damage.
What is the controversy of the June 14 parade?
Democratic lawmakers have said that Republican Trump is taking over the Army's birthday for himself.
"This is Trump. This is all about his ego and making everything 'him,' which is, I think, a discredit to the military, the Army," said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, introduced a bill to prohibit the use of public funds for "displays of military force for personal glorification."
Officials have told Reuters that the planning for the Army's 250th birthday celebration started last year - before Trump won the November presidential election.
The White House has said the administration was planning a historic celebration for the Army's 250th birthday. The Army was established on June 14, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.
Trump has made no secret of his desire to hold military parades in the past.
During his first administration, he ordered the Pentagon to look into a display of military might after a 2017 trip to France where he and French President Emmanuel Macron reviewed that country's defense forces marching down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Trump ultimately settled for a display of tanks and other armored vehicles during a July Fourth celebration in 2019 in Washington.
Has the US ever had a military parade?
Critics have called a parade an authoritarian display of power that is wasteful, especially as Trump slashes costs throughout the federal government. Military parades in the United States are generally rare. Such parades in other countries are usually staged to celebrate victories in battle or showcase military might. In 1991, tanks and thousands of troops paraded through Washington to celebrate the ousting of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait in the Gulf War.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Ryan Jones in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller and Alistair Bell)