Pentagon postpones Trump's military parade

The Veterans Day military parade that President Donald Trump ordered won't happen in 2018, according to the US Defense Department.

The announcement came several hours after The Associated Press reported that the parade would cost about $92 million (82.8 million euros).

That number was more than three times the price first suggested by the White House.Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said on Thursday that the military and the White House "have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019."

However, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who was on his way to Bogota, told reporters traveling with him that he had seen no such estimate and questioned the media reports.

"I'm not dignifying that number ($92 million, €80 million) with a reply. I would discount that, and anybody who said (that number), I'll almost guarantee you one thing: They probably said, 'I need to stay anonymous.' No kidding, because you look like an idiot. And no, whoever wrote it needs to get better sources," Mattis said.

"Whoever leaked the number to the press was "probably smoking something that is legal in my state but not in most," he said in reference to his home state of Washington, where marijuana use is legal.

Politically sensitive

Trump announced his intention to hold a military parade in Washington after he visiting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last year, where he enthusiastically watched a showcase of the French military along the famed Champs-Elysees.

The cost of the US president's parade, however, has become a politically charged issue, especially now that the Pentagon has canceled a major military exercise planned for August with South Korea in the wake of Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump said the drills planned with South Korea were provocative and that dumping them would save the US "a tremendous amount of money." The Pentagon later said the Korea drills would have cost $14 million.

Earlier this year, the White House budget director told Congress that the cost to taxpayers could be in the area of $10 million to $30 million. Those estimates were likely based on the cost of previous military parades, such as the one in Washington, D.C. in 1991 celebrating the end of the first Gulf War.

Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said earlier Thursday that Defense Department planning for the parade "continues and final details are still being developed."

The parade was expected to include troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, as well as units in period uniforms representing earlier times in the nation's history. It also was expected to involve a number of military aircraft flyovers.

av/kms (AP, Reuters, AFP)

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