The mayor of Washington, D.C. mocked President Donald Trump in a tweet Friday after the president blamed Washington politicians for the cancellation of his planned Veterans Day military 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 realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad),” the Democratic mayor wrote.
Officials with the Department of Defense said Thursday that the parade, which the president hoped to hold on Nov. 10, would not happen in 2018. Trump said Friday morning that the move was prompted by exorbitant costs.
“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “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.”
He added that the parade might happen in 2019 "when the cost comes WAY DOWN."
The parade was set to be held in Washington and feature armored vehicles, aircraft flyovers and soldiers parading in World War I-era uniforms, CNBC reported, citing an estimate from the Defense Department. The parade was initially expected to cost about $12 million, an estimate based on the cost of the victory parade after the 1991 Gulf War, according to NBC News reported. The news network reported that parade cost about $8 million.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told Congress in February that the parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million. However, CNBC reported Thursday that the expected cost had risen to $92 million.
Despite Trump's allegation that politicians were to blame for the price hike, The Associated Press reported a majority of the cost "was believed to cover Pentagon costs for aircraft, equipment and personnel."
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