Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said there’s so far no reported damage to the city’s roads following Donald Trump’s military parade — but the cleanup will take “many days” yet.
“We expect for them to clean up over several days,” Bowser told reporters at a press conference on Monday, referring to the Army Corps of Engineers — which is handling the aftermath.
“When I say clean up, I mean move all of their equipment and fencing and jersey barriers. It will take many days, as I understand it.”
Roughly 7,000 soldiers, 128 tanks, 34 horses, and a pack of dog-like robots paraded down the National Mall on Saturday to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army — which just so happened to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday.
But the sparse crowds lining the parade route were dwarfed by the estimated four million people who turned out across the country for “No Kings” protests against Trump’s attempted centralization of power.
The president’s plans for a similar parade in 2018 were kiboshed over the potentially massive price tag and fears that heavy tracked vehicles could damage D.C.’s roads.
On Monday Bowser said she did not “at this point” have any damage or necessary repairs to report.
“We will evaluate with the utility companies any issues that we are aware of [with roads]. At this point I don’t think we have any to report…
“From my vantage point, our public safety agencies… performed very well in the support of the national special security event. I don’t think there’s anything remarkable [to report] about public safety incidents,” Bowser said.
“We had some First Amendment demonstrations that [D.C. police] supported to make sure that everybody was safe. And I think that happened without event.”
She added that she watched the parade after celebrating a seven-year-old’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and that she had been “surprised” and “excited” to see one of the paratroopers fly the D.C. flag.
The Army has pledged to pay for any repairs that prove necessary.
Saturday’s parade was the largest such event by the military since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, and featured everything from Revolutionary War marching bands through WW2-era Sherman tanks to parachute displays and flights of Apache helicopter gunships.
But the event came amid controversy over Trump’s use of military troops to guard immigration raids and quell protests in Los Angeles, against the wishes of California’s Governor Gavin Newsom.
Beforehand, Trump had threatened that “those people who want to protest” against the parade would be “met with very big force”, calling them “people who hate our country”.
The Independent‘s reporter found the parade less Soviet Russia and more “small-town July 4”, with small crowds, a subdued atmosphere, and booming tannoy announcements advertising the parade’s commercial sponsors.
A spokesperson for Trump claimed that more than 250,000 people attended the parade, but the Associated Press estimated its audience fell “far short” of 200,000.
