Secret Army Plans Reveal Trump Birthday Parade Could Feature 6,600 Soldiers, 150 Vehicles and 50 Helicopters — Just Like Dictators Kim Jong Un and Putin’s Notorious Celebrations
Trump continues to plan for a birthday parade.
May 2 2025, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Plans for Donald Trump's proposed birthday parade continue to come into focus as the logistics and price for such an event remain blurry, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The president has been planning a massive military parade through the streets of Washington D.C. in honor of his upcoming 79th birthday – at a proposed cost of at least $92million.
Trump has wanted one since attending France's Bastille Day parade in 2017.
D.C. is already set to host the Army’s 250th birthday festivities on June 14, with a big celebration that has been planned for over a year. But the idea of adding a parade to the celebration came up more recently in conversations between the Army and the White House.
June 14 also happens to be Trump's birthday, and the president has long dreamed of having a grandiose military showoff after seeing one in France on Bastille Day in 2017.
He's also reportedly been jealous about the self-congratulatory style of festivities in North Korea and Moscow's annual Victory Day Parade.
Now, with just over a month to go, plans for the procession are reportedly being finalized. Planning documents obtained by the Associate Press call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians.
The price tag for such an event would cover the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.
D.C. officials are worried about what the heavy equipment could do to local roads.
While Army officials insist no final decisions have been made, Col. Dave Butler boasted that the Army is excited about the plans for its anniversary.
He said: "We want to make it into an event that the entire nation can celebrate with us. We want Americans to know their Army and their soldiers.
"A parade might become part of that, and we think that will be an excellent addition to what we already have planned."
The festival is already set to involve an array of activities and displays on the National Mall, including a fitness competition, climbing wall, armored vehicles, Humvees, helicopters and other equipment.
Trump's birthday and the Army celebration are both June 14.
According to the AP, the parade would bring in soldiers from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide. Those could include a Stryker battalion with two companies of Stryker vehicles, a tank battalion and two companies of tanks, an infantry battalion with Bradley vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers and infantry vehicles.
There would be seven Army bands and a parachute jump by the Golden Knights. And documents suggest that civilian participants would include historical vehicles and aircraft and two bands, along with people from veterans groups, military colleges and reenactor organizations.
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Trump's desire for a self-celebratory parade dates back to his first term, when he envisioned military planes flying overhead and tanks roaring down the streets.
But Trump angrily canceled his plans after local and military leaders determined a parade of that scope would cost upwards of $92million and the heavy military equipment would tear up the roadways.
In a defiant rage on X at the time, Trump cried: "The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it.
"When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up!"
