MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Tomorrow, a massive military parade will run through Washington, D.C., including tanks, thousands of troops and a flyover - something we have not seen in this country since the 1990s. The parade is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army. It's also President Trump's 79th birthday. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf will be at the parade tomorrow and is with us now to tell us more about what we can expect. Good morning, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
MARTIN: So what can we expect?
LONSDORF: So the route is right on the National Mall here in D.C., ending near the White House. And like you said, it's going to be quite large - dozens of tanks, armored vehicles. There'll be around 6,000 troops marching in uniform and lots of military aircraft, with at least one flyover. Trump has said he plans to attend. The total cost is estimated to be somewhere between 25 and $45 million, according to the Army, and they said they expect around 200,000 spectators to be there.
MARTIN: You know, we've all been trying to look this up in thinking about when was the last time we saw something like this. A military parade in the U.S. is really unusual, so how did this one come to be?
LONSDORF: Yeah, it's very unusual. The last major U.S. military parade was also in D.C. That was in 1991 to commemorate the end of the Gulf War. The U.S. hasn't had a major military parade like this during peacetime in a long time. This is something that Trump has been wanting since his first term in office, and like you said, this one happens to be falling on Trump's birthday. Although, the White House has insisted that is simply a coincidence.
The Army has been planning the larger part of this celebration for their 250th anniversary for more than a year, but the parade was just recently added. Last week, Trump commented at Fort Bragg that people didn't want to do it, but he insisted, saying, quote, "we want to show off a little bit." There has been criticism, particularly from Democratic lawmakers calling it, you know, a vanity project, a misuse of funds. Other critics have said it's a display, you know, generally associated with places like Russia or North Korea.
MARTIN: So say more about what the setup's been like here in D.C.
LONSDORF: Yeah, it's been a really weird vibe shift in D.C. in the past week from, you know, hosting the WorldPride parade last Saturday to immediately switching to prepare for this parade. And much of this military equipment had to be brought into the city. I talked to D.C. resident Pierce Economakis (ph). He was bartending in a residential neighborhood in D.C. on Tuesday night when the road was suddenly closed off by police and huge trucks carrying tanks and armored vehicles rolled through.
PIERCE ECONOMAKIS: It's surreal. It's a little depressing. I think a lot of people forget that people actually live here and it's not, you know, some sort of playground.
LONSDORF: You know, that's, of course, one view. Trump supporters seem to be pretty excited about all of this. There have been a bunch of road closures already in effect all over the city, and Reagan National Airport will close for several hours tomorrow to accommodate that flyover. The city is also bracing for damage to the streets from all this heavy machinery, although there have been steel plates put down along the route to try to minimize that.
MARTIN: And I got to tell you, a lot of people who have the means are leaving town as all this is going on. And, you know, this all comes as Trump has deployed the military to Los Angeles and people there are protesting this administration's deportation policies there and elsewhere. Is some kind of pushback planned for tomorrow?
LONSDORF: There are protests planned specifically against this parade nationwide that organizers are calling the No Kings protest. They're set to take place in around 1,500 cities tomorrow. There's not one planned in D.C., but there are other smaller ones planned in other parts of the city. Trump has warned that any protests at the parade will be met with, quote, "very big force."
MARTIN: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. Thanks, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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