Since his first term in office, President Trump has envisioned a grand military parade, and on Saturday, it will become a reality.

The occasion, the U.S. Army's 250th birthday, which happens to coincide with President Trump's own birthday.

The multimillion-dollar spectacle promises a striking display of American military might.

But the event has also drawn scrutiny with

questions swirling about its cost and the political message it sends. Dan Lamoff covers the

U.S. military and Pentagon for the Washington Post and joins us now. Thanks for being here.

Sure. Thank you. So President Trump is getting this military parade that he's long wanted.

How did his vision for a Bastille Day-style parade

evolve into this event, marking the Army's 250th anniversary, which also happens to fall on President

Trump's own birthday? Yeah, I think the most significant piece here in terms of how we got to actually

following through and doing it is that the Army approached the White House early in

this administration looking to do some sort of big national event to celebrate the 250 years of the

Army. That seems to have grown into what we are now looking at, which very much rhymes with

some of the discussions we had during the first Trump administration,

where that parade was sort of short-circuited and sort of reeled back into being more of an air show.

And against the backdrop of the Trump administration's highly publicized efforts to cut costs at the federal level,

there are estimates that place the parade's cost between $25

million and $45 million. That includes money to protect and then repair the streets, given the

weight of the armored vehicles. Who's footing the bill for all of this? The Army is for the most part.

I mean, this is money that comes out of operations and maintenance, things that could have been put toward training,

whether or not there's a backfill on that money later, I think, is a question. But at the moment,

this is coming out a hide for the Army. How is the Pentagon responding to concerns that the military

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