Military parade rolls through Washington as protesters across US decry Trump
It came as opponents of the president's agenda rallied in hundreds of cities nationwide for 'No Kings' protests.
Despite concerns about lightning and thunderstorms, the rain held to a slight drizzle during the march of soldiers and machinery.
Demonstrators confront police during a demonstration against President Donald Trump policies (AP/Jose Luis Magana)
Heavy cloud cover and low visibility seemed to contribute to less of an aircraft presence in the parade.
As the parade was underway, police in Los Angeles fired tear gas and flash bangs to try to disperse demonstrators challenging immigration raids. Clouds of gas wafted toward a family-friendly demonstration that had been going on for hours outside City Hall.
The procession, with more than 6,000 soldiers and 128 Army tanks, was one Mr Trump tried to make happen in his first term after seeing such an event in Paris in 2017, but the plans never came together until the parade was added to an event recognising the Army's 250th anniversary.
'Every other country celebrates their victories. It's about time America did too,' Mr Trump declared in brief remarks at the parade's end.
The president praised the strength of the military's fighting forces and said US soldiers 'fight, fight, fight and they win, win, win' — putting a new twist on a line he regularly delivered during his 2024 campaign rallies after he survived an assassination attempt.
A military parade commemorating the army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
At times, Mr Trump stood and saluted as troops marched past the reviewing stand.
Attendance appeared to fall far short of early predictions that as many as 200,000 people would attend the festival and parade.
There were large gaps between viewers near the Washington Monument on a day when steamy weather and the threat of thunderstorms could have dampened turnout.
Hours before the parade started, demonstrators turned out in streets and parks around the nation to voice opposition to the Republican president.
They criticised Mr Trump for using the military to respond to people protesting his deportation efforts and for the muscular military show in the US capital.
As armoured vehicles rolled down the street in front of the president, on the other side of the country the Marines he deployed to Los Angeles appeared at a demonstration for the first time, standing guard outside a federal building.
President Donald Trump participates in a reenlistment ceremony for Army soldiers during a military parade (AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Dozens of Marines stood shoulder to shoulder in full combat gear beside the National Guard, Homeland Security officers and other law enforcement. Hundreds of protesters facing them jeered in English and Spanish, telling the troops to go home.
In Washington, hundreds protesting Mr Trump carried signs with messages that included 'Where's the due process?' and 'No to Trump's fascist military parade' as they marched toward the White House.
A larger-than-life puppet of Mr Trump was wheeled through the crowd, a caricature of the president wearing a crown and sitting on a golden toilet.
Other protesters waved Pride flags and hoisted signs, some with pointed messages such as 'I prefer crushed ICE,' referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Other messages included: 'The invasion was HERE Jan. 6th, NOT in LA' and 'Flip me off if you're a FASCIST.'
'No Kings' rallies unfolded in hundreds of cities, designed to counter what organisers said were Mr Trump's plans to feed his ego on his 79th birthday and Flag Day.
People hold signs reading, 'NO KINGS,' during a protest taking place on the day of a military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary (AP/Rod Lamkey Jr)
Organisers said they picked the name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration.
On the National Mall, a display of armoured vehicles, helicopters and military-grade equipment was set up to commemorate the Army's birthday.
Vendors outside the army festival sold gear marking the military milestone. Others hawked Trump-themed merchandise.
UFC chief executive Dana White, centre, smiles during the parade (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP)
Larry Stallard, a retired American Airlines pilot, said he travelled to Washington from Kansas City for the weekend 'to see the military and see Trump.'
Mr Stallard, who voted for Mr Trump, said it was 'hard to believe' people were upset about the cost of the event when 'they blow that in 10 seconds on things that we don't even need'.
The parade was added just two months ago to the long-planned celebration of the army's birthday and has drawn criticism for its price tag of up to 45 million dollars (£33 million) and the possibility that the lumbering tanks could tear up city streets.
About six in 10 Americans said Saturday's parade was 'not a good use' of government money.
The vast majority of people, 78%, said they neither approve nor disapprove of the parade overall, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
44 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The rise of Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's hardline immigration policy
With Los Angeles convulsed by confrontation between pro-migrant protesters and military units dispatched by Donald Trump, no figure apart from the president has loomed larger than Stephen Miller. As the man in the Oval Office, it is Trump who has absorbed the accusations of authoritarianism for usurping the powers of California's government after deploying 4,000 national guard troops and 700 active marines on to the streets of a city that is home to more undocumented immigrants than any other in the US. Behind the scenes, however, this has been the apogee of Miller's power – and an episode that illuminated his power in a White House where his influence far outstrips his misleadingly modest title of deputy chief of staff. Miller, 39, may have been the true catalyst for the volatile scenes that played out over several days in the city of his birth. As the long-term architect of Trump's years-long effort to reinvent US immigration policy, he has pressed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to intensify efforts to arrest migrants as deportation figures fell far short of pre-election promises. At a meeting at Ice's Washington headquarters last month, Miller ordered them to skip the usual practice of compiling lists of suspected illegal migrants and instead target Home Depot, where day laborers gather for short-term hire, and 7-Eleven stores, to carry out mass arrests, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ice would aim for a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day, he told Fox News – a figure exceeding previous estimates, based on assumptions that those with criminal records would be prioritised. It also seemed to raise the risk of mistakes and wrongful arrests. Accordingly, Ice has drastically stepped up its arrest rate – and broadened the profile of those targeted. The results have been plain to see. As demonstrators took to the streets, Miller promptly raised the stakes by accusing them of an 'insurrection'. Amid the hullabaloo and expressions of outrage, Miller may allowed himself a quiet smile of satisfaction over sticking it to the city of his birth – in many ways emblematic of the progressive cultural trends despised by Trump's 'make America great again' (Maga) followers but a place where his own hardline anti-immigrant views had long provoked derision. The son of affluent Jewish parents, Miller's evolution into a race-baiting provocateur took shape in the upscale suburb of Santa Monica, where he gained notoriety as an incendiary agitator at the eponymous local high school. Video footage purportedly from the period and circulated on social media shows a bearded Miller stridently voicing his disdainful view of school janitorial staff 'Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do this,' he shouts into a microphone. The gross statement seems to have been representative of a broader canvas of toxic ideas, with racism at its core. In Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda, to date the only biography published on Miller, author Jean Guerrero recounts one episode from the future political operative's adolescence, when he suddenly ditched a close friend, Jason Islas, on the grounds of his ethnicity. 'The conversation was remarkably calm,' Islas, a Mexican American, is quoted saying. 'He expressed hatred for me in a calm, cool, matter-of-fact way.' An article he wrote as a 16-year-old for a local website expresses contempt for fellow students of Hispanic origin. 'When I entered Santa Monica High School in ninth grade, I noticed a number of students lacked basic English skills,' Miller wrote on the Surfsantamonica site. 'There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes, despite the large number of Hispanic students that attend our school.' The school, he added, was one where 'Osama bin Laden would feel very welcome' – a view reflecting the then recentness of the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaida and also Miller's increasing focus on Muslims. Miller's indulgence in far-right ideas continued during his college years at Duke University in North Carolina, where he associated with white nationalist thinkers and groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, he worked with the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which it defined as a 'an anti-Muslim hate group', and also with Richard Spencer, a white nationalist leader who popularized the term 'alt-right' to describe groups that defined themselves through a white racial identity. After graduating, Miller moved to Washington to work in Congress, serving first as a press secretary to Michele Bachmann, then a Republican representative for Minnesota, before moving to work for Jeff Sessions, at the time a rightwing Alabama senator who later became Trump's first attorney general. It was in the latter role that his reputation as an avatar of extreme anti-immigrant agitprop became established. In 2013, helped by Miller, Sessions torpedoed a bipartisan piece of legislation that was intended to pave the way for immigration for undocumented migrants. To help sink the bill, Miller used Breitbart News, a rightwing website then headed by Steve Bannon. It would prove to be a fateful connection. The Breitbert connection also shone further light on Miller's views on race and immigration, as revealed in emails he sent to editors and reporters. They showed a preoccupation with the 1924 Immigration Act, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, which severely restricted immigration to the US from certain parts of the world on what observers say were racial and eugenics grounds. Hitler subsequently praised the legislation as a model for Germany in Mein Kampf. After Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 - creating scandalizing headlines by demonizing Mexican immigrants as 'drug dealers, criminals and rapists', Miller took a leave of absence from Sessions' Senate office to work for him. On the recommendation of Bannon, by then Trump's campaign chief, he was installed as a speech writer, chiefly because of his focus on immigration, which had become the candidate's own signature issue. It enabled Miller to showcase his ability to channel Trump's inner self. The pair have politically inseparable ever since. Miller wrote Trump's dystopian 'American carnage' speech for his first inauguration in January 2017. As a senior policy adviser in the first Trump administration, it was Miller who was behind some of its most notorious policy initiatives. These included the so-called 'Muslim ban' on travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries and the practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border. His growing notoriety as an anti-immigration extremist drew criticism from his own relatives. In 2018, his maternal uncle, David Glosser, branded him a 'hypocrite' for ignoring the memory of his ancestors, who fled antisemitic pogroms in tsarist Russia. 'I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, an educated man who is well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family's life in this country,' Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist, wrote in Politico. Miller cared little for such sentimentality. After Trump's defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Miller stuck with the former president – even while his political future initially looked doomed in the aftermath of the 6 January 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol. Consequently, he grew ever more powerful in Trump's inner circle. He may have earned extra kudos by declining to exploit their relationship to win lucrative consulting contracts, instead setting up a non-profit, the America First Legal foundation. Meanwhile, he immersed himself in studying how to overcome the hurdles that stymied Trump's agenda during his first presidency. The outcome has been apparent in the blizzard of executive orders druing the restored president's first months back in the White House. Miller purposely sought to 'flood the zone' in a manner that would overwhelm the capacity of the courts – or the media – to respond. No order was more quintessentially Miller's than that issued on the day of Trump's second inauguration on 20 January, which attempted to cancel birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants. The order was challenged in the courts and is now with the supreme court after the administration challenged the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide injunctions supporting a right that is guaranteed in the US constitution. Miller's anti-immigrant zeal has at times exceeded even that of Trump. According to the New York Times, the president told a campaign meeting last year that if it was up to Miller, there would only be 100 million people living in the US – and all of them would look like Miller. The bond between the two men has grown to such an extent that Miller has been dubbed 'the president's id' in some circles. 'He has been for a while. It's just now he has the leverage and power to fully effectuate it,' an unnamed former Trump adviser told NBC. Others have called him 'the most consequential' White House official since Dick Cheney, who exercised vast influence as vice-president under George W Bush. Critics cast Miller as the root of all evil in Trump's White House. 'Stephen Miller is responsible for all the bad things happening in the United States,' NBC quoted Ben Ray Luján, a Democratic senator for New Mexico, as saying. Miller's exalted place at Trump's side was illustrated during the recent Signalgate episode – as revealed by the Atlantic, whose editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently invited into a government chat group to discuss airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen, whose missile attacks on Israel threatened Suez canal shipping routes. When JD Vance questioned the strikes – asking whether Trump 'is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe' – Miller unambiguously slapped the vice-president down. 'As I heard it, the president was clear: green light,' Miller said, according to the transcript. The clearest testimony to Miller's status has come from Trump himself. Asked by Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBC's Meet the Press, about speculation that Miller might become national security adviser, a usually influential White House post currently filled, albeit temporarily, by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, after the previous incumbent, Mike Waltz, was fired. 'Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that,' Trump replied. The result is that Miller's presence is detectable in all policy areas, including at the state department, where he succeeded in having his ally, Christopher Landau, installed as Rubio's deputy. The goal is to control the flow of foreigners entering the United States, insiders have told the Guardian. At the state department, Landau has become an important liaison to officials in the consular affairs section, which has been put under the leadership of a conservative coterie of diplomats and reoriented toward policing migration. Officials from the state department have joined FBI agents on recent Ice raids aimed at tracking down unregistered migrants. Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, laments that Miller's rising star means he can 'use the powers of the federal government to unleash his fascist worldview'. '[That view] has now been transformed into the main political policy and aim of Donald Trump's presidency,' said Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led political action committee. 'The demagoguery of immigration has long been at the centre of Donald Trump's political rise, and Stephen Miller's desire to make America whiter and less diverse, married with the power of the presidency without guardrails, is incredibly dangerous and should concern every American who believes in the rule of law.' Andrew Roth and David Smith contributed reporting
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
He invented a viral watch-cleaning device. Now he says the American dream has been 'ripped out of my hands' by Trump tariffs.
Checkbook Chronicles Anthony Mendoza, a veteran Army major and father of two daughters, saw his invention as a pathway to entrepreneurial success, That dream is hanging by a thread. June 15, 2025, 8:04 AM EDT By Rob Wile President Donald Trump's April 10 announcement that he was raising tariffs on China to 145% left Anthony Mendoza shattered. The 41-year-old Phoenix resident, father of two and veteran U.S. Army major had stumbled onto an invention that allows amateur antique watch aficionados to gently rinse a timepiece's components. He named it ChronoClean, and the device began to go viral. By last winter, Mendoza had sold out of his first 500 units. Yet with a single social media post, the president seems to have dashed Mendoza's plans for the future of his business. 'I really felt like my American dream had been ripped out of my hands,' Mendoza said. 'And that our own president and government was letting it happen.' Business breakdown The ChronoClean had gained traction online among a fast-growing amateur community of antique timepiece tinkerers, especially abroad. Unable to locate an affordable manufacturer in the United States, Mendoza had turned to Chinese producers, which allowed him to sell the device for $150 each. 'I tried to get it built here — that's what I wanted to do initially,' Mendoza said of manufacturing the product in the U.S. 'But I went to several companies, and every one I went to said, 'No way, we can't do that, it would cost $300 each just to make it for you.' So it was totally out of the realm of possibility.' A boost from a popular YouTube account in the timepiece community helped. After accounting for costs, Mendoza estimated that he earned about $60,000 in profit. Tariff troubles After selling out of his first batch of 500 units last winter, Mendoza said he had dialed up another 500 on Valentine's Day for production. Two weeks later, Trump's tariff escalations began. The president first imposed a total of 20% duties on exports from China in early March. Over the next several weeks, the level would steadily rise until it hit a high of 145% in the second week of April. At that point, Mendoza thought he'd have to abandon the ChronoClean entirely, just as the second set of products was ready to ship. The duties would stay at that three-figure level for about a month more, shaking global markets and keeping Mendoza awake at night. Having recovered from a devastating divorce and still unable to find steady work after retiring from a 20-year career in the Army, Mendoza had pinned his entrepreneurial hopes on the success of ChronoClean. Finally, on May 12, the Trump administration announced a breakthrough after trade talks between the U.S. and China in Geneva. That agreement brought the duty level back down to what was initially announced as 30%. Mendoza jumped, telling his Chinese liaison to immediately ship the units. Even at the newly lowered tariff level, Mendoza's shipping costs doubled from $1,100 on the first batch of ChronoClean devices to $2,650 for the second. Looking ahead To this day, Mendoza must grapple with the uncertain environment Trump's on-again, off-again tariff pronouncements have created. As a backup plan, Mendoza says he has routed some orders directly to the U.K. to avoid the U.S. duties. But it's an expensive hedge: Mendoza said it cuts into his bottom line. He remains anxious about further escalations from Trump. 'If it goes back to 145%, I won't be able to import my next shipment into the U.S.,' Mendoza said. He has a lead time of about five months, and has to be able to make decisions with certainty. 'Because they are selling so well, I need to start working on my next order now,' he said. A closer look at this moment in time Mendoza describes himself as having 'strong political feelings.' 'I don't like the way things are right now,' he said. He called the Trump administration's insistence on moving vast manufacturing operations from overseas to the U.S. 'a slap in the face' to small-business owners. 'It sounds great if you don't understand how logistics work. For my product, the reason it sells is because it's the cheapest you can buy,' Mendoza said, pointing to the reality that affordable manufacturing outside of the U.S. helps him keep his prices low for customers. As a single parent, Mendoza is working to try to put his two daughters through college. Between those expenses and funding ChronoClean, Mendoza said his financial cushion is thin. It's all the more wrenching given what he's gone through, he said. 'It's like, 'You've been deployed, you started as a private, retired a major, got through a horrible divorce, you're a great father and now you've started your own business and invented a product people want — they're begging for it,'' he said of ChronoClean. 'Then here comes your own government to shatter that dream, so big businesses and Elon Musk can get richer," Mendoza said. "To me, that's not the American dream. It's small business, middle America, everyone should have a good chance at this. [The tariffs] will potentially put me out of business, it's hard to wrap your head around it.' Rob Wile Rob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
BBC examining plans that could lead to US consumers paying for its journalism
Senior BBC figures are examining plans that would lead to American consumers paying to access its journalism, as the broadcaster looks to the US to boost its fragile finances. The corporation, which is facing fierce competition from streamers and falling licence fee income, has been targeting US audiences as it attempts to increase its commercial revenues outside the UK. Executives believe the perceived polarisation of the US media, especially during Donald Trump's second term, may have created an opportunity for the BBC's brand of impartial coverage. The US is considered to be a prime target for the BBC to increase its overseas income, which has become an urgent task as the value of the licence fee has fallen significantly in real terms since 2010. Last year, the number of people paying it also fell by half a million as audiences were drawn to alternatives like Netflix and YouTube. The licence fee is now £174.50 a year. While the corporation has already relaunched its website and news app in the US, American consumers of its content are not asked to make any kind of financial contribution to the BBC's output. The Guardian understands that senior figures are keen to increase revenues coming from the country, including examining the idea of asking users to pay for access in some form. Some US broadcasters, such as the free-to-air TV network Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), already ask for donations from supporters. It is one of the potential areas of reform being considered by BBC bosses as talks over the renewal of its royal charter begin in earnest. The charter expires in 2027, with the corporation's leadership adamant that their red lines are any move to a subscription or advertising model in the UK. However, they are also under pressure to show they are attempting to increase all other areas of income. Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, is keen to increase the corporation's non-licence fee income. He is the former boss of BBC Studios, which oversees the broadcaster's commercial operations. He has said he is willing to embrace reforms that make its finances 'fairer, more modern and more sustainable'. BBC Studios has already been selling ads on its content in the US, including the website and app. The corporation's website in the US was relaunched at the end of 2023, followed by an overhaul of the corporation's app last year. The US is the BBC's largest English-speaking market and its second-largest overall, behind India. Its focus on North America has led to its digital newsroom there doubling in size, with an expansion in live broadcast programming from its Washington DC bureau. Internal figures suggest since relaunching, has had double-digit growth for nine consecutive months. The website reaches 130 million people globally, with 67 million of those in North America. Despite the focus on increasing its income, the BBC's revenues actually fell by 12% last year to £1.84bn, though it has increased significantly over the last five years. The fall last year was blamed on a slump in a post-Covid pandemic fall in TV production and commissioning, as well as investments made in
