{"id":136184,"date":"2025-05-04T18:18:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-defends-high-cost-for-military-parade-peanuts-compared-to-the-value-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T18:18:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T18:18:55","slug":"trump-defends-high-cost-for-military-parade-peanuts-compared-to-the-value-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-defends-high-cost-for-military-parade-peanuts-compared-to-the-value-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump defends high cost for military parade: 'Peanuts compared to the value' – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump told NBC News he plans to hold several events to celebrate U.S. military victories this year, including a \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d military parade in Washington, D.C., to commemorate Flag Day, which also happens to fall on his birthday.
\u201cMy birthday happens to be on Flag Day,\u201d Trump told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker in a wide-ranging interview at Mar-a-Lago that aired on Sunday. \u201cI view it for Flag Day, not necessarily my birthday. Somebody put it together. But no, I think we\u2019re going to do something on June 14 maybe or somewhere around there. But I think June 14. It\u2019s a very important day.\u201d
The parade won\u2019t be cheap.
Defense officials told NBC News<\/a> that the estimated cost could be as high as $45 million, with individual Army units ultimately bearing the cost of the parade \u2014 which could potentially impact funds used for training.
Trump said it would be worth it.
\u201cPeanuts compared to the value of doing it,\u201d Trump said of the cost. \u201cWe have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we\u2019re going to celebrate it.\u201d
The event, which will also mark the Army\u2019s 250th birthday, is expected to include 6,600 soldiers, an Army spokesman said.
Defense officials familiar with the planning said it is also expected to feature more than 50 aircraft and 150 military vehicles, which could include wheeled vehicles such as Humvees and trucks, and so-called tracked vehicles, like tanks.
The military parade is just one of several events Trump said he intends to host this year to mark America\u2019s wartime achievements.
Trump said he was inspired after speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron about Victory Day celebrations in Europe commemorating the end of World War II. He said he was considering celebrations on separate days to commemorate the end of the two world wars.\u00a0
Recounting a past conversation with France President Emmanuel Macron, Trump recalled saying, “‘We had more to do with winning World War II than any other nation. Why don\u2019t we have a Victory Day?’ So we\u2019re going to have a Victory Day for World War I and for World War II.”
\u201cYou know, if you look at Russia, they celebrate Victory Day,\u201d he had previously noted.
\u201cI think you can have two days,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to go and not work and have a national holiday and all of that, because we don\u2019t have many of those days left. You know, eventually our country will become all national holidays.\u201d
When Welker pressed for more details on these celebrations, Trump pivoted back to talking about Flag Day and didn\u2019t get into specifics.
The U.S. officially claims Nov. 11, 1918, the day an armistice agreement was signed with Germany, as the end of World War I. Sept. 2, 1945, when the U.S. accepted Japan\u2019s surrender, is the date recorded as the end of World War II.
Trump also revealed his plans to remodel the White House, starting by replacing grass in the Rose Garden with a \u201cbeautiful stone surface.\u201d
\u201cWe had the prime minister of India here, and they had a lot of press, and the women were walking out with their shoes full of mud. So we can\u2019t have that,\u201d Trump said.
The renovations will also include an effort to build a ballroom in the East Wing of the White House using existing meeting rooms. It would be used in part to host world leaders.
\u201cYou know, when they have a party for, like, when the head of China comes in, or the head of anybody, you know, head of anything,\u201d Trump said, \u201cthey have a party where they have a tent 200 yards away, where people have to walk in the rain to get to a tent. And that\u2019s not for us. That\u2019s not for the United States of America.\u201d
Trump noted that he built a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago property and said his background as a real estate developer makes him uniquely equipped to carry out the White House renovation.
He told Welker he plans to fund the effort himself.
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m not going to ask the government for money. I\u2019ll fund it, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have some donations to it. But it\u2019s not an inexpensive thing. It\u2019ll cost a lot of money,\u201d Trump said, adding that \u201cit will be something really beautiful, top of the line.\u201d
Nnamdi Egwuonwu is a politics reporter at NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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ProfileSectionsLocaltvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC News news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump told NBC News he plans to hold several events to celebrate U.S. military victories this year, including a \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d military parade in Washington, D.C., to commemorate Flag Day, which also happens to fall on his birthday.\u201cMy birthday happens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}