President Donald Trump’s upcoming $45 million parade will most likely get rained on, according to current weather forecasts.
As of Wednesday, the National Weather Service has predicted that there is a 60 percent chance it will rain Saturday after 2 p.m. with a probability of thunderstorms in the evening, potentially foiling Trump’s stacked parade itinerary.
Its website currently reads for Saturday night: “Showers likely before 8pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 8pm and 2am, then a chance of showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. Chance of precipitation is 60%.”
The rain could significantly impact Trump’s big, beautiful military parade, which is meant to celebrate the founding of the U.S. Army 250 years ago, as well as his 79th birthday.
The Army said that the parade is expected to start at 6:30 p.m. and finish at around 7:30 p.m., half an hour before possible thunderstorms.
Depending on the severity of the weather, certain events, such as the Army’s Golden Knights parachute jump and fireworks at the end of the night, could be canceled.
The Golden Knights Parachute Team is currently set to parachute into the Ellipse, where a concert will be held following the parade, and present Trump with a U.S. flag.
The elite parachute team was already forced to cancel one of their jumps at a community celebration for the Army’s 250th birthday at the Redstone Arsenal Army base in Alabama four days ago due to rain.
Special Agent Matt McCool, who is in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington field office, advised at a news conference Monday that “due to the large crowds, noise and the weather forecast, that for their safety,” people leave their pets and emotional support animals at home, though service animals are still permitted.
He also said that “we’re preparing for an enormous turnout,” the Secret Service reportedly expecting hundreds of thousands of people to be in attendance Saturday. More than 18 miles of fencing are already being put up throughout Washington D.C. in preparation for the event.
Yet unfavorable weather conditions could affect public transportation and result in lower turnout than expected.
The parade will also include around 9,000 troops marching along Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C., more than 100 military vehicles, and 50 aircrafts, such as Black Hawk helicopters and WWII-era B-52 bombers.
“It’s gonna be an amazing day. We’ll have tanks, we’ll have planes, we’ll have all sorts of things. I think it’s gonna be great,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday.
The estimated cost of the president’s birthday parade excludes the projected cost of repairing the damage done by military tanks after the event, which U.S. military officials have said might come out to as much as $16 million.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Browser said back in April that “military tanks on our streets would not be good,” adding that if the president chose to use military tanks, they “should be accompanied by many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”
Around 130 military tanks are expected to participate in Saturday’s procession.
Trump tried to throw a military parade during his first term as president after seeing the Bastille parade in France in 2017, which celebrates the fall of the Bastille prison on July 14.
He even told French President Emmanuel Macron that the U.S. was “going to have to try to top” France’s celebrations.
Though his plans fell through due to the parade’s estimated cost of $92 million, Saturday’s parade was meant to be his redemption.
But with the current forecast, all Trump can do is ask, as Barbara Streisand once did: “Don’t bring around a cloud to rain on my parade.”
