Trump’s Military Parade: Take III: Mick Mulvaney vs D.C.’s City Council

August 21, 2018 8:00 am EDT Halodoc News Commentary 7

On Thursday TNB reported that the price tag for Trump’s military parade had ballooned from an estimated $10-$30 million in March to now $92 million. By the end of the day, TNB reported, the Pentagon announced the parade was ‘postponed’ until 2019, but they did not provide a specific reason why.

That is when Trump took to his phone on Friday and tweeted out he cancelled the parade himself blaming D.C. local politicians, alleging, “they wanted a number so ridiculously high I cancelled it” without offering any evidence. 

D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) responded to Trump with a tweet of her own, saying, “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).”

On Sunday Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s White House Budget Director from the Office of the OMB, took to the airwaves on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to offer up his explanation when asked by Wallace to respond, saying the event was cancelled for other “contributing factors” other than costs, but never elaborated what those other factors might be.

Though he did add he thougtht the mayor of D.C. “seems like a nice lady” but “face it, this is a city that voted, I don’t know, probably 70 -80% against the president so to think that maybe the City Council of Washington, D.C. is not trying to help the president accomplish what he wants to accomplish shouldn’t be news to anybody…” and that he was “not familiar” with the figure Bowser floated, that the numbers he saw “were much higher.”

And that is when the D.C. City Council jumped in on Monday, The Hill reported, to add their response to Mulvaney, saying, “Actually, it was 95.1% of DC that voted for candidates other than the President…” that “opposition to a $92 million tax-funded parade is nonpartisan. We’d have opposed a $92 million parade led by the Obama’s & Chuck Brown, with statehood floats made of hemp.”

And while all that was going on, The Hill goes on to report, down the road at the Pentagon, Col. Rob Manning, spokesman for the DOD had this to say:

“The president was not briefed by any member of the Department of Defense on any cost associated with the parade” adding that, “the president canceled the military parade before being briefed on the cost estimates.”

Here is the full interview with Mick Mulvaney with Chris Wallace. The questions about Trump’s military parade start at 6:15.

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Why This Matters (Opinion)

It doesn’t. It’s cancelled. Thank all the gods and goddesses and little green men. It appears, once again, there is no evidence for Trump’s wild accusations and allegations that anyone is trying to fleece anyone other than him trying to fleece American tax payers to pay for some Ode To Trump.

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7 Comments

  2. The people who said we couldn’t get to 4% GDP weren’t wrong they were right and the only way we got to 4% GDP was because the Trump administration changed the formula for calculating the GDP and they used revisions and adjustments that totaled over $1T over the previous 10 years which has never been done before to do it. Had it been calculated the same way it was the previous quarter it would have been 2.8% not 4.1%. This is from the same people who tell us the deficit will be $800B this fiscal year but in the last 12 months from September 11, 2017 when the debt crossed the $20T milestone until now have added $1.4T to the debt. They can spin numbers anyway they want to but the bottom line is they are adding more to the debt annually than Obama did on average and the GDP is not growing at 4.1%. The economy is good but nowhere near what they are trying to make us believe.

  4. 16 These people are always grumbling and blaming others; they follow their own evil desires; they brag about themselves and flatter others in order to get their own way.

    Jude 1

  5. It looks like these massive deficits and debt are getting Trumps attention but for the wrong reasons. Trump spoke at a fundraiser last Friday and said he favored a weak dollar and low interest rates and disagreed with Fed Chairman Powell’s plan to normalize interest rates over the next few years. Trump is a big spender and the self proclaimed “king of debt” but the higher interest rates are going to take a massive bite out of his budget because of the increased cost of servicing the debt. He even insinuated that he might pack the Fed with governors who agree with him and will vote to keep rates low. The problem is that these low interest rates have spurred a debt bomb that will go off and make the banking crisis look like a picnic. Personal bankruptcies are up to near record highs and someone is going to take a hit for all of this debt that’s being forgiven. It’s also interesting to note that personal savings has started to rise with the rising interest rates after years of being stagnant and that’s good for the people who are saving. Why Trump would want to ruin that by keeping interest rates near zero is beyond me. EVERYTHING is about the stock market now and low interest rates allows corporations to borrow cheap money to expand their businesses and fund stock buy backs but that money isn’t trickling down because wages are flat.

  7. So, the excuse given for the parade this year was the end of WWI (even though it was to be held on the ‘wrong’ day), what will be the excuse for the parade next year? The Spanish Flu Centennial?

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