It might rain on President Trump's parade
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It might rain on President Trump's military parade later Saturday in D.C., so the Army is considering precautions in case there's lightning.
The big picture: "Rain won't stop us, the tanks don't melt, but if there's lightning then that puts the crowd at risk," Army spokesperson Steve Warren told the English newspaper The Times. "If there's lightning they will disperse the crowd and even cancel or postpone the parade."
- Showers and a potential thunderstorm are in the evening forecast, per the National Weather Service.
- The parade has been scheduled to start at 6:30pm and run along Constitution Avenue, stretching from 23rd Street NW near the Lincoln Memorial to 15th Street NW near the Washington Monument.
Zoom in: President Trump views the Flag Day parade — which marks the 250th anniversary of the Army, and happens to fall on his 79th birthday — as a splashy show of U.S. military might.
- Planning for the event — which is to feature about 7,000 soldiers and more than 100 aircraft, tanks and rocket launchers and missiles — has been in the works for months.
- Crews have been erecting security fences around the perimeter of the White House, and a viewing stand on the Ellipse for Trump to watch the parade.
The spectacle's climax has been planned to be Army parachuters touching down to present Trump with a folded American flag.
- Next, Trump would preside over re-enlistments for 250 soldiers, before a fireworks display finale.
- The Army is working off a $45 million budget for the event, about a third of which would go toward repairing streets expected to be damaged by tanks and other heavy military vehicles.
- The cost estimates don't include the Secret Service's security spending.
Zoom out: Critics of the parade have called it unnecessarily political and have compared Trump's push for the parade — namely his desire to display military hardware and celebrate his own birthday — as the type of thing that dictators do.
- Trump has wanted a military parade since attending France's Bastille Day parade in 2017.
