President Donald Trump is slated to fulfill his dream of headlining a massive celebration of the U.S. military, with the Interior Department confirming Wednesday that the president plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. following the annual National Independence Day Parade.
Trump will lead “a celebration of America’s military with music, military demonstrations, and flyovers” at the National Mall on the evening of July 4, the department said in a statement. That “Salute to America” event will be preceded by the afternoon parade down Constitution Avenue, featuring “marching bands, fife and drum corps, floats, military units, giant balloons, equestrian, drill teams, and more.”
The Interior Department’s statement came as The Washington Post reported Wednesday morning that “Trump plans to have U.S. military planes, including one of the jetliners used as Air Force One, fly over the Mall as part of his Fourth of July celebration next month.”
While the president reportedly will not be aboard any of the planes for the stunt, sources told The Post that “the flyover reflects Trump’s long-standing interest in replicating the Bastille Day celebration he observed in France in 2017 and his desire to throw an extravagant patriotic celebration.”
In the nearly two years since Trump attended France’s annual military parade in Paris—where he was also met with protests—the president has repeatedly sought a similar event in the United States as a display of “military might,” efforts which elicitied condemnation from critics of both Trump and the U.S. war machine.
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