US President Donald Trump has cancelled a Veterans Day military parade in Washington DC planned for this year over high costs of staging the event.
He tweeted that local politicians had asked for a "ridiculously high" figure.
Reports say the event could have cost about $90 million (£71m) – more than three times the original estimate.
Mr Trump said "maybe we will do something next year in DC", and he will instead attend parades in France and at Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base.
Mr Trump was so impressed by France's Bastille Day parade on a visit to Paris in 2017, he previously said he wanted the US to "top
The date set for the Washington parade was 11 November – the centenary of the end of World War One.
Paris will hold its long-planned parade on the same day, while the event at the Maryland air force base is scheduled for a "different date", the president said.
Quite predictably, he turned to his favourite communication tool – Twitter.
He wrote that "the local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it."
Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesperson, Col Rob Manning, said in a statement that the Department of Defense and the White House "have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019".
BBC
