Day 894: Trump to waste millions of taxpayer dollars to celebrate himself on July 4th
For hundreds of years, July 4th has been a day for Americans to celebrate the independence of the nation from Great Britain. In 2019, however, the holiday is being usurped by Donald Trump to celebrate Donald Trump.
Trump has long wanted more pomp in the form of tanks at a parade and this year he’s getting it, in addition to numerous flyovers. The fact that such a grandiose event is happening — even before factoring in the military equipment— is strange in and of itself.
When they’ve stayed in town, presidents have mostly kept to the White House [on July 4th].
In 1977, Jimmy Carter returned from Camp David to view fireworks from the White House balcony. Barack Obama threw a barbecue for some 1,200 military personnel on the South Lawn of the presidential residence in 2010.
The last president to preside over an Independence Day themed event was Ronald Reagan in 1987 who spoke on July 3 at the Jefferson Memorial to announce an economic bill of rights.
The tanks’ presence will make the parade look like those held before dictators in Iran, Russia, North Korea and China. However, like seemingly everything during Trump’s tenure, he’s heavy on the sizzle, light on the steak. He didn’t even bother to learn what the tanks are, because despite proclaiming that there will be “brand new Sherman tanks” rolling through the streets, Sherman tanks haven’t been in service for more than 60 years.
Trump, while wantonly spending apolitical dollars by the millions, is cordoning off prime locations for friends, family, political allies and donors to turn Independence Day into more of a Trumpfest.
The White House isn’t even hiding the fact that an American holiday funded by taxpayers is turning into a highly politicized event. While the Republican National Convention has been delivered VIP tickets, the Democratic National Convention is being ignored.
For all of this effort, Trump will be wasting the time and energy of the military, who by and large loathe such pretentious shows. Those reasons extend beyond having to be away from their family for attendance and guard duty too.
The troops, it turns out, hate parades.
“There is not a soldier ever alive who loves a parade,” said Rob Schaefer, 52, a retired Army Green Beret lieutenant colonel now living in St. Petersburg. “There is nothing new about that. It goes back to the days of the Roman legions.”
The main reason for parade-phobia is the time and effort it requires of troops, who have plenty of other duties and already spend plenty of time on parade.
Schaefer and other local veterans say the resentment grows for a parade on the scale the president contemplates, a major expense and effort potentially harmful to local people and infrastructure.
“When I was an artillery officer stationed in Germany, every time there was a major movement, we were writing checks for millions of dollars to the Germans for the damage we caused chewing up roads and bridges,” said Greg Celestan, 55, a retired Army lieutenant colonel now living in Tampa.
That last bit about infrastructure issues is prescient, since no one really knows the effects of having tanks in Washington D.C. will have on the roads and bridges of the area. Tanks weren’t designed to be gentle and Washington wasn’t designed to have tanks rumbling through the streets.
It’s important to remember that absolutely none of this is necessary in the least. But it’s all about Trump’s ego. And he’s wasting an exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars to stroke it.
894 days in, 568 to go
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