The U.S. Defense Department says a military parade that President Donald Trump has called for is being postponed until at least next year.
“We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning said Thursday.
The announcement comes as media reports said the cost estimate for the parade had gone from about $12 million to $92 million.
Speaking to reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that he had given initial guidance for the parade, but he had not seen any cost estimates yet.
According to a Pentagon memo released in March, the postponed parade is expected to go from the White House to the U.S. Capitol.
The memo said the focus of the parade will be on the "contributions of U.S. military veterans throughout history," starting from the American Revolutionary War.
The parade will include wheeled vehicles but no tanks. Some troops will wear period uniforms, and the airplanes used at the end of the parade will also include "older aircraft, as available."
The inspiration to hold a military parade came from the president's trip to France last year when he and first lady Melania Trump watched Bastille Day events in Paris on July 14, as the guests of French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte.
Military parades in the United States are generally rare. In 1991, U.S. troops paraded through Washington to celebrate the ousting of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the Gulf War.