Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said this week that it “scares” her that President Trump’s planned event for the Fourth of July is “glorifying military might,” in an interview with NPR.
Trump on Monday said that there will be tanks at the National Mall for his “Salute to America” Independence Day event and reporters have spotted the vehicles arriving in the District.
{mosads}Bowser expressed concerns over the president looking “to dictators as an example of how to celebrate your nation” as well as using the occasion to show off military might.
“I also have some concerns about a president not celebrating the military but glorifying military might,” Bowser said Tuesday in an interview with NPR. “That scares me the most.”
She said she was worried the event was making the holiday political.
“We have very few occasions where people can just, like, celebrate our country without it turning into a partisan food fight,” Bowser said in a nod to a statement made by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) during her first Democratic presidential debate.
Bowser did not offer a specific example as to which dictators she thought the president was using as an example, but said, “We have a lot of examples of military parades that I don’t think are reflective of American values.”
She went on to say she has not personally conveyed her concerns with the administration and did not intend to before the July Fourth event.
Trump plans to give a speech Thursday from the Lincoln Memorial. Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about aspects of the event including the cost.