Donald Trump's Saturday parade honoring the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. Army, which coincidentally fell on his 79th birthday, fell flat with one former Army general who expressed his disgust on MSNBC on Sunday morning.
The parade and following speech by the president, which was seen by a diminished crowd that reportedly started streaming out early, was panned on Saturday night and opinions did not change overnight.
Speaking with the hosts of MSNBC's "The Weekend," U.S. Army Brig. Gen Steve Anderson (RET.) stated that the event was a failure on multiple levels.
After praising the Army service members who were pressed into service for the celebration, Anderson lashed out at the president for his wastefulness.
"It was a colossal waste of time, effort and money we don't need," he bluntly stated. "That's not who we are; we don't do these kind of things. We don't march down the streets like that. We prove ourselves and our value as an army, our strength as an army through our actions, not parades. That's something that dictators do."
"And I think the money that was spent, I mean, it's colossal when you think about it: $45 million is what the White House admits to. But this town was shut down for three days –– it's still shut down out there! You can't get across the 14th Street Bridge, for instance, and you shut down the airport for 3.5 hours. You know, the tens of millions of dollars of inconveniences that were created in the town, Uber drivers are complaining, you know, the hotels have been shut down. I mean, you can't get around. And so there's a tremendous cost associated with that. We're going to have to fix all the roads, by the way."
"And think about what we could do with that money if we had it instead," he pointed out. "I mean, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines out there, they need support. Donald Trump already stole $1 billion from MILCON, for military construction, for the for the southern border. I mean, so there's barracks that are not being renovated, there's child-care centers that are not being built. There are perks that that soldiers and families and their families deserve. and they're not going to be able to get because Donald Trump has stolen this money, essentially taken it and used it."
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