“Put troops out there so we can thank them — leave tanks for Red Square,” said Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, a retired four-star Marine general and former head of United States Central Command, who until this year served in the Trump administration as a special envoy to help resolve disputes in the Persian Gulf…

Pentagon officials said Mr. Trump insisted on including the tanks and armored vehicles in the celebration, prompting a scramble among officials at Fort Stewart in Georgia to move the vehicles to Washington and position them around the memorial instead of parading them down streets and over bridges that would be damaged under the heavy load.

But the two 70-ton Abrams tanks trucked from Fort Stewart were still deemed too heavy to roll onto the delicate apron of the Lincoln Memorial and will remain confined to the asphalt road behind it. Mr. Trump will salute America in sight of the two more diminutive, 30-ton Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, painted in woodland camo, their treads festooned in navy blue drapes.

All of the preparations could be upended, though, if the weather in Washington refuses to cooperate.