Trump watches the parade of his dreams

Washington Post

11 hours ago

President Donald Trump got the parade he always wanted Saturday — a grand demonstration of military might and patriotic zeal that took place along the National Mall on his 79th birthday.
But it fell on an overcast day that capped one of the most tumultuous weeks of his presidency — with troops deployed on the streets of the country's second largest city, bombs launched in the Middle East and, less than 24 hours before the parade began, a targeted killing of a state lawmaker and her spouse in Minnesota.
Amid all that domestic and foreign turmoil, the procession of weapons, like so much else in America's politics, was subject to divergent interpretation. Supporters saw a celebration of stability and order while Trump's detractors saw the promotion of violence and authoritarian power.
Trump got the parade started after being greeted by a 21-gun salute and the strains of 'Hail to the Chief' as he took his seat in a reviewing stand. A group nearby began singing 'Happy Birthday,' marking either his 79th or the Army's 250th — it was unclear. But the cheering for the president was not quite the overwhelming celebration that occurs at his political rallies.
He looked on as troops dressed in historical uniforms passed on horses, bombers did flyovers overhead, and members of the Golden Knights parachute team fell from the sky. He applauded at moments, rose and saluted the troops passing by at others.
Later in the evening, he was expected to deliver a speech and swear in recruits.
Parade-goers leaned on metal barricades and sprawled onto the grass, although crowds along the parade route by the Washington Monument were relatively thin. Even bleacher seating for VIP guests, positioned directly across from a riser for news cameras, remained half-empty throughout the program.
Americans' differing reactions were evident even before the troops began marching, tanks began rolling and helicopters flew overhead — with deep divisions over whether any of it was a good idea.
Paul Brown, a 57-year-old Army veteran, traveled two days earlier from Adams County, Ohio, and spent the day on the National Mall dressed in an Afghanistan war veteran hat and a T-shirt featuring a photo of the president that read 'Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.'
'We absolutely got somebody in there who gives a s--- about the military,' Brown said of Trump being in office. 'These parades should have been going on for years.'
Around the country, protesters were out, including at spots that have been important to Trump, including his Trump Tower in New York and his Mar-a-Lago vacation home in Palm Beach, Florida.
'I feel the erosion of democracy. I feel taken away from due process,' Debbie Ziev, a 79-year-old attending her first protest, said on the historic boardwalk in Atlantic City, where Trump built hotels and casinos. 'I felt strongly about Vietnam, but I think I feel more strongly about [Trump] going forward, with my children and grandchildren, because he's ruining the country. He's dividing us. He's causing people not to talk to each other.'
Nearly two-thirds of American adults, 64 percent, said they opposed using government funds to throw the military parade, according to a new poll from NBC News Decision Desk powered by SurveyMonkey.
The results tracked along party lines, with most Democrats and independents — 88 percent and 72 percent, respectively — opposing the use of government funds for the parade and 65 percent of Republicans supporting it.
The parade was designed to compete with the grandeur that Trump witnessed in foreign countries and carry the muscular showmanship he's cultivated over the years. He craves the pomp, loves the circumstance, and revels in the attention.
'We want to show off a little bit,' he said Tuesday.
Throughout the week leading up to the parade, the military has been at the center of almost everything. Even the musical Trump watched at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday night, 'Les Misérables,' featured a political uprising and armed rebellion, with Trump openly unsure of which side's main character he most identified.
It was a week where he oversaw the militarization of parts of the country and the politicization of parts of the military. And it came on a day with clashes of culture, as streets and squares around the country were filled for a 'No Kings' day of protest, and hours after a new spasm of political violence, in which a gunman fatally shot the top Democrat in the Minnesota House in what Gov. Tim Walz (D) called a 'politically motivated assassination.'
Throughout the day, Trump remained in the White House and held a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin, where over an hour, Trump later said, he received birthday wishes and spoke about the conflict between Israel and Iran.
On the National Mall, there were displays of military equipment and fitness competitions among soldiers, all staged as part of the 250th anniversary of the Army. But elsewhere, both in the Washington area and around the country, demonstrators were flocking into public spaces and holding 'No Kings' signs to denounce what they view as Trump's authoritarian tactics and his disregard for the Constitution.
The military parade Saturday night was done with direct input from Trump. He had specifically requested aircraft and other equipment, aiming to capture the full might of the armed forces, according to White House officials.
The event was set to be one of the grandest since he took office for his second term, a spectacle that federal government and military officials have spent months attempting to fulfill an ambitious and grandiose vision for celebrating the country and its military. His inauguration was moved indoors due to cold weather, and he was returning to the National Mall for the first time in years. His viewing stand was near the Ellipse, not far from the event held on Jan. 6, 2021.
It fulfilled a desire that he initially expressed more than eight years ago when he was taking office the first time.
'We're going to show the people as we build up our military,' Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post before his first inauguration in January 2017. 'That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we're going to be showing our military.'
But he was largely rebuffed by past military leaders, who worried about costs and said it ran against an American tradition of avoiding public displays of martial strength. Those kinds of displays, they pointed out, were more common in authoritarian regimes, such as the former Soviet Union's Red Square celebrations or North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's missile processions.
The year-long planning effort, which grew significantly in ambition over the past few months, culminated one week after Trump's decision to send in National Guard troops in California to quell protests over his immigration policies. Earlier in the week, he threatened to deploy the military elsewhere in the country if additional anti-ICE protests erupted.
Trump also traveled to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Tuesday for an event that was meant to kick off the week's celebration of the Army's birthday, with military demonstrations and flyovers. But it turned into a political rally that some military officials later said made them uncomfortable and concerned.
With a crowd of camouflaged soldiers behind him, Trump said that those who burn the U.S. flag should be jailed, even though that runs afoul of First Amendment protections established by the Supreme Court. He taunted the news media and he ridiculed his political opponents, triggering boos of agreement from the crowd.
'You think this crowd would have showed up for Biden?' Trump said at one point, to laughter and boos. 'I don't think so.'
The event at Fort Bragg was organized by America250, the same group overseeing the parade, and Saturday night was the next opportunity to see whether anything had been learned from earlier in the week.
Elahe Izadi in Atlantic City contributed to this report.