Trump relishes show of strength as military takes to streets
A beaming Donald Trump is celebrating his 79th birthday, and the Army's 250th anniversary, with a military parade through the streets of Washington.
Security was heavy as he walked out to Hail the Chief, pumping his fist to cheers of 'U-S-A'.
Thousands of military personnel, vehicles and aircraft will march through and fly over Washington for the display of strength. The National Anthem is performed as President Donald Trump arrives. Credit: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans have attended rallies to protest the President's aggressive approach in major cities from New York to Atlanta to Los Angeles.
Anti-Trump groups planned nearly 2000 demonstrations of varying sizes across the country to coincide with the parade. Many are taking place under the theme 'No Kings,' asserting that no individual is above the law.
All planned 'No Kings' protests in Minnesota were canceled following news a Democratic politician had been killed in what Governor Tim Walz described as a 'politically motivated assassination'.
People heading into Washington for the parade encountered a massive security presence, with some 30 km of 2.4m-high black fencing, much of it reinforced with concrete traffic barriers, cordoning off streets and surrounding landmarks including the Washington Monument.
The celebrations will cost the US Army between $US25 million and $US45 million ($A38 million to $A69 million), US officials have told Reuters. That includes the parade itself as well as the cost of moving equipment and housing and feeding the troops.
Critics have called the parade an authoritarian display of power that is wasteful, especially given Trump has said he wants to slash costs throughout the federal government.
— with AAP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AU Financial Review
24 minutes ago
- AU Financial Review
Iran-Israel conflict exposes Trump's impotent diplomacy
Just five months after sweeping into office promising to measure his 'success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and the wars we never get into', US president Donald Trump's efforts at diplomacy are looking increasingly impotent. Israeli strikes on dozens of Iranian targets on Friday – which killed some of the country's top scientists and military commanders, as well as damaged nuclear and military sites – reignited conflict between the two regional enemies. Iran has retaliated with a barrage of ballistic missile attacks on Israel.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Trump loves playing toy soldiers, but it is not a game
Conflating patriotism and division with personality cult, Donald Trump taking the salute as the US Army celebrated its 250th anniversary cunningly serves to give his addicted supporters a much-needed fix as America threatens to split at the seams thanks to his bewildering presidency. Some 6000 soldiers with weapons marched in the massive grand parade through Washington streets alongside mounted cavalry, 50 military aircraft and 60-ton M1 Abrams battle tanks, while overhead a flyover of bombers, helicopters and vintage warplanes also coincided with the president's 79th birthday. People marching honour the history of the men or women who serve; the thunder of rolling metal is the expression of power. The day inevitably turned the memorial into a Trump rally. Few seemed to notice the ironies: Trump glories in military might, yet was medically exempt from serving in Vietnam in 1968 after a foot doctor and friendly family business associate diagnosed heel spurs; he later attacked Republican rival John McCain, a Navy flyer and POW at the Hanoi Hilton, saying, 'he's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured '; Meanwhile, the $69 million parade comes just months after Trump slashed funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Meanwhile, as Trump bathed in birthday adulation, protests erupted across the US with the 'No Kings' group adding a personal anti-authoritarian slap in the face to the president for defying court orders and questionable deportations. The Army celebrations were surely tainted by Trump's decision to send US Marines and the National Guard against fellow Americans protesting raids on immigrant communities in California the week before, and his subsequent threats to use the military against protesters in Washington exercising their First Amendment right. 'These are people who hate our country .… if any protesters want to come out, they will be met with very big force,' he warned. Spectacle is often the language of empire, and just as the Romans did, Trump used the pageantry of the grand military parade to remind Americans who ruled the world and who was in charge. Trump is pushing a myth that America has fallen from greatness. Yet his empire runs hundreds of military bases across the globe, ensures policies preserve US economic hegemony and exports American ideals. The late Jimmy Carter in 2019 told Trump during his first term as president how China has not wasted a single penny on war and was ahead of a US that had squandered $3 trillion on military spending and was 'the most warlike nation in the history of the world,' because of a tendency to try to force others to 'adopt our American principles'. But Trump replaced bite with bark and threw the switch to vaudeville while his supporters lapped up his threats to invade Canada, Mexico, Panama and Greenland and promises to end wars in Ukraine-Russia and Gaza. But when the US Army marched down Constitution Avenue yesterday, in the rubble of Gaza, Israel or Iran, nobody sang Happy Birthday Mr President.
AU Financial Review
an hour ago
- AU Financial Review
Australia already pulling its weight on defence, PM to tell Trump
Seattle | Anthony Albanese will push back on demands Australia ratchet up its defence budget when he meets US President Donald Trump this week, saying that his government had not only increased spending but was providing bases and resources for American submarines, warships and marines. The prime minister said he would emphasise the in-kind support Australia provides the US under the AUKUS pact, as he confirmed he was scheduled to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).
