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A trio of Democratic U.S. senators is requesting an investigation into the costs of President Donald Trump’s “Salute to America” event on the Fourth of July, which included military flyovers and tanks on the National Mall.

The lawmakers, who include Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., are asking the Government Accountability Office to determine whether the event broke any laws that prohibit taxpayer money from being diverted for political purposes.

“Congress did not specifically provide funds to cover the costs of the president’s expanded Fourth of July events, and we are very concerned by the impacts and the precedent of diverting limited federal resources — including the use of military personnel, equipment and aircraft, as well as other appropriations or visitor fees paid to improve national parks — to organize and execute unbudgeted events,” says the letter sent to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro with the GAO.
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Several D.C.-area lawmakers — all Democrats — raised concerns about the president’s event before it took place last week. Among them were D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who said the holiday should be “about U.S. independence, not Trump’s ego.”

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