The National Park Service has allegedly been told to divert almost $2.5 million for President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. “Salute to America” event for the Fourth of July.
The funds to be redirected for the celebration were initially meant for upkeep and maintenance in the nation’s national park system, said two people with knowledge of the administration’s efforts.
The event will include military tanks and a flyover from aircraft including the new “Marine One” helicopter. The celebration will likewise feature appearances by the Annapolis-based Blue Angels and a B-2 bomber, while the money transferred from the Park Service is said to be only a fraction of the total cost of this year’s event, The Washington Post reports.
The outlet writes that the entire Fourth of July celebration on the Mall typically costs the Park Service about $2 million.
Democrats have expressed frustration with the President’s politicizing of the celebration mainly because his planned speech at the Lincoln Memorial will only be available to watch to Republican donors and political appointees, who will receive VIP tickets. Democrats have argued that the July 4 celebration has turned into a campaign-like event.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the interior, environment and related agencies, said in a phone interview. “No ticketed political event should be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
The administration is nonetheless finalizing plans to have one of the planes in Air Force One’s fleet zoom overhead as Trump takes the stage and the White House is reportedly in the midst of negotiations with the Park Services to have an image from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission projected onto the Washington Monument.
The head of the National Parks Conservation Association voiced harsh criticism of the President and his administration due to the high cost of the celebration, saying that the diversion of funds as a “breach of trust with the public.”
“The public pays parks fees to fix national parks and for educational programs not the president’s parade,” said Theresa Pierno.
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