Donald Trump orders Pentagon to plan military parade to rival pomp and ceremony of France's Bastille Day

Donald Trump has asked for a large-scale military parade, an unconventional move that has drawn comparisons between the US President and dictators such as Kim Jong-un. 

Mr Trump - who has long toyed with the idea of a parade in Washington that would showcase American muscle and underscore his role as commander-in-chief - made the request to top Pentagon officers, who are looking for a date.

"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America's great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

"He has asked the Department of Defence to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."

The Pentagon confirmed it was "in the process of determining specific details."

Trump's new request, first reported by The Washington Post, immediately fuelled comparisons to similar events in more autocratic countries.

"What an absurd waste of money! Trump acts more like dictator than president. Americans deserve better," said Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern.

Retired general Paul Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets, a progressive political action committee for military veterans, said: “Donald Trump has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies, and this is just another worrisome example.”

He added: “Unfortunately, we do have a commander in chief right now as much as have a wannabe banana republic strongman.”

When Mr Trump visited Paris in July for Bastille Day, he made no secret of his awe for the pomp and ceremony of the occasion.

Sitting on the Champs-Elysees, he marvelled at the Republican Guard on horseback and jets flying overhead, and greeted President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in an open-topped camouflaged military jeep.

Months earlier, aides confided that Mr Trump had considered a military parade to mark his inauguration, but the idea was eventually scrapped.

The Post report said a January 18 meeting between Mr Trump, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and top generals at the Pentagon marked a tipping point in his  push for a parade. It quoted an unidentified military official as saying, "The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France."

It was thus interpreted as a presidential order, the Post said, adding that the cost of shipping tanks and other military hardware to Washington could run in the millions of dollars.

John Kirby, a retired Navy rear admiral and former spokesman for the State Department and the Pentagon, reposted on Twitter an article he wrote for CNN's website last summer after Mr Trump mentioned he had been dazzled by the Paris parade. Kirby said a big military parade in Washington is a bad idea.

"First of all, the United States doesn't need a parade down Pennsylvania or any other avenue to show our military strength," he wrote. "We do that every day in virtually every clime all over the world."

The president has already prompted fears about his respect for democratic freedoms once this week by suggesting Democrats were "un-American" and "treasonous" for not applauding his State of the Union address.

The White House claimed Mr Trump was joking.

"The president was clearly joking with his comments, but what isn't a joke is that Democrats refuse to celebrate the accomplishments of last year that have helped all Americans,” Ms Sanders said.

But the quip did not go down well with lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats.

"I have seen the president's most ardent defenders use the now-weary argument that the president's comments were meant as a joke, just sarcasm, only tongue in cheek," said Republican Senator Jeff Flake.

"But treason is not a punchline, Mr President."

Military veteran and Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth also fired back at Mr Trump, while lampooning his deferments from medical military service during the Vietnam War.

"We don't live in a dictatorship or a monarchy," she said.

"I swore an oath - in the military and in the Senate - to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap."