WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wants U.S. Army tanks, combat aircraft and troops as far as the eye can see Saturday during his big military parade in Washington, but Democratic lawmakers are alarmed by the massive costs and what they regard as North Korea-like optics.

Some Republican members, on the other hand, say they are ready to celebrate America’s brave Army warriors and mark the service’s 250th birthday — and Trump once again being its commander in chief.

Congressional Democrats have argued that Trump planned the military demonstration to commemorate his own birthday — an accusation the president has rejected. They also envision scenes that would be too similar to military parades such as those held by hard-line leaders in Russia, Belarus, North Korea and other countries.

“I think, willfully or just because of his personality, it’s going to be more of a tribute to President Trump,” said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “That has the potential to undercut what should be a day of saluting the Army, and particularly, remembering those who gave their all in the uniform, not any president.”

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both legs while serving as a helicopter pilot in Iraq, raised concerns about the cost for what she described on social media as Trump’s “egotistical, nonsensical birthday parade.”

Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen introduced legislation in April aimed at blocking Trump — and future commanders in chief — from holding such events, though the measure is unlikely to go very far in the GOP-controlled House.

“Donald Trump may imagine himself an all-powerful ruler, but he is a president, not a potentate, and the American people don’t pay tribute to him as if he were a king,” the Democrat said in an April 9 statement. “This bill makes clear that any president, now or in the future, cannot make the public pay for his birthday entertainment or swell his covetous pride.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chaired the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, called the parade a “joke,” adding: “This isn’t patriotism, it’s profiteering.”

‘A little heat’

But some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill have defended the parade and the president’s motivation for it.

“I like celebrations. I did them when I was in business,” Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott said. “I did them while I was governor. They do cost money, but they create a lot of feeling that is uplifting.”

The spectacle is slated to include 150 Army combat vehicles — including nearly 30 M1 Abrams tanks — more than 50 aircraft and over 6,000 Army troops, according to the Defense Department. Once all the equipment and troops are transported to and from the nation’s capital and the last tank has rolled off the parade route, it is expected to cost between $25 million and $45 million.

Those projected costs, however, were not large enough to concern even one of the Senate’s most fiscally conservative members.

“Listen, I’m a pretty frugal guy, but, yeah, if you’re ever going to spend a few bucks to celebrate what is truly a milestone in U.S. history, 250 years for the Army, I can’t squabble about it,” said Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson, who has sounded the alarm about the cost of his party’s budget reconciliation measure.

Asked about Democrats’ claims that the event would be mostly about the president, Johnson replied: “Probably any president might tend to do that — kind of goes with the job description.”

For his part, Trump has shrugged off the event’s price tag.

“We have people putting up money to do it. Not that it’s necessary because I think it’s a great expenditure,” he contended Monday during an investment roundtable at the White House. “We have many tanks. We have all sorts of new ones and very old ones, old from World War I and World War II. It’s really a celebration of the Army.”

Trump also has dismissed criticism from Democrats and others that he is throwing the military parade to celebrate his own birthday. The president turns 79 on Saturday.

“We’re celebrating the Army on Flag Day,” he said Monday. “It is my birthday, but I’m not celebrating my birthday. I’m celebrating Flag Day. It happens to be the same day, so I take a little heat.”

‘Tanks all over’

Amid the Democratic concerns, the commander in chief on Monday predicted that the event would be “incredible.” And he described just the kind of scene that has caused many in the opposition party to recoil.

“We (will) have a lot of those Army airplanes flying over the top, and we (will) have tanks all over the place,” he told reporters. “And we have thousands and thousands of soldiers going to bravely march down the streets. It’s going to be a beautiful day, I think. And we’re going to celebrate our country.”

Trump has been in a distinct military mindset since last weekend, ordering National Guard troops and then Marines into Los Angeles over the objections of local and state officials to quell the sometimes-violent protests in parts of the city over his mass deportation program. Trump has referred to protesters as “insurrectionists” multiple times in recent days and told reporters Tuesday he would invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act if he determined one was taking place.

Addressing reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump had this warning for anyone thinking of protesting his military parade: “We’re going to be celebrating big on Saturday — and if there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force.”

The president later Tuesday explained his instinct to go directly to Guard troops and Marines once things had escalated on the ground in Los Angeles.

“In my first term, I waited for governors to call in the military because they didn’t want to do it. And I watched Minneapolis and other places burn for a long time,” he told reporters on Air Force One after a visit to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

“I called in the military in Minneapolis, but it was seven days” into the 2020 protests over the police-involved death of George Floyd, Trump said, contending that he had learned a lesson from his dealings with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who later became the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee.

“I waited for him to call,” the president said. “I kept waiting. ... And, finally, I called him because I’m not going to wait. They were destroying the city. The whole city was burning down. Horrible.”

Meanwhile, the joint fundraising committee of Walz’s 2024 ticket mate, former Vice President Kamala Harris, called Trump’s upcoming military parade a “disgrace.”

“This parade would not be a national celebration of service — it would be a shameful celebration of one man’s insatiable ego,” the Harris Victory Fund said in an email to supporters last month. “But also, this is a parade that would cost tens of millions of dollars ... at a time when (the Trump administration is) looking to cut veterans’ health care and housing benefits to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”

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