Military parade, big protests will fuel clashing visions of America

Washington Post

12-06-2025

In Washington, tanks will roll down the streets, planes will streak overhead and bands will pump out military tunes as soldiers parade before a president who embraces a gilded, muscular form of patriotism — and whose birthday it is.
Across the country, demonstrators will flood hundreds of cities and towns, making speeches and holding 'No Kings' signs to denounce what they see as President Donald Trump's authoritarian tactics and disregard for the Constitution.
This Saturday will see one of the starkest displays of America's divisions since Trump took office, as contrasting visions of America unfold in vivid colors on the country's streets. The confrontation now playing out in Los Angeles is certain to fuel both sides, as some Americans cheer Trump's strong hand in quashing purported chaos and others decry what they see as his growing embrace of authoritarian tactics.
Trump's critics are especially inflamed by the notion that the president would host a military parade on his birthday, which they say carries an unmistakable whiff of authoritarianism.
'Americans, in particular veterans, see this as a vanity endeavor for Donald Trump,' said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'You have massive cuts to [veterans'] health care, troops away from their families for years over the last decade fighting wars on terror, barracks falling apart in many posts — and we will spend over $50 million to roll tanks through the streets of D.C.? It doesn't add up.'
Trump has long made clear his desire for a dramatic military parade to showcase America's military might, a display that has traditionally been more common in other countries. June 14 is Flag Day as well as the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army's founding, and the White House says the fact that it is also Trump's 79th birthday is a coincidence.
Sean Spicer, an officer in the Navy reserve who served as White House spokesman in Trump's first term, noted that the president seized on the idea of a military parade years ago, after seeing one as part of France's observation of Bastille Day. The juxtaposition with Trump's birthday is plainly happenstance, he said.
'This idea of 'kings' and his birthday — that is manufactured. He has not brought this up,' Spicer said. 'The only people mentioning his birthday are people in the media and the left. It's sad when the president of the United States, the commander in chief, is trying to recognize the sacrifice of so many, and haters want to tear it down.'
As the confrontation in Los Angeles drags on, shaping up as a pivotal moment in Trump's second presidency, it is becoming increasingly conflated with Saturday's events. Trump sent the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to confront protests against his immigration policies, and on Tuesday he suggested a similar dynamic could play out on Saturday.
'For those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, making no distinction between violent and peaceful demonstrators. 'And I haven't even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country. But they will be met with very heavy force.'
In an address denouncing Trump's intervention in his state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cited the parade as part of the president's lurch toward authoritarianism. 'We all know that this Saturday he's ordering our American heroes, the United States military, and forcing them to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past,' Newsom said Tuesday.
Mike Madrid, a longtime Republican consultant who is critical of Trump, said the president's goal is the same in the L.A. confrontation and the D.C. parade: to warn opponents he is willing to use the military in unorthodox ways. 'The reason he is doing the military parade is not for flexing, it is to show he is willing to break norms with the military,' Madrid said, adding that the clash in California 'fits into that narrative.'
Organizers say their plans for a Saturday No Kings protest in Los Angeles are moving forward and that the recent immigration-focused protests only confirm the need for it. They add that they are stressing nonviolence in all their planning.
But the parade was a volatile subject long before the Los Angeles protests, with Trump's adversaries seizing on it as the epitome of his crude self-regard. Still, not everyone who supports the parade is an unequivocal Trump fan.
Ty Seidule, a military historian at Hamilton College who retired as a brigadier general after 36 years in the Army, said he initially had mixed feelings about the parade but came to view it as a rare chance to highlight the U.S. Army, a storied and underappreciated organization.
'Is it the same day as his birthday? Yes, but it is also the Army's birthday,' Seidule said. 'The Army band is not playing 'Happy Birthday.' There isn't going to be a Marilyn Monroe moment, I hope. I think there are plenty of other things to criticize the president for, but to me, if you focus on that, you are taking away the opportunity to celebrate something we don't often do in this country.'
Saturday's display could be a moment to highlight facts that Trump downplays, Seidule suggested, including the Army's historic reliance on immigrants and minorities. The Army's story is not all positive, he added; it helped end slavery and liberate the Nazi death camps, acts of undeniable heroism, but fell woefully short when it came to civil rights.
'It's an opportunity to tell Americans that we reflect the society, for better and worse,' he said.
Trump's habit of seizing on traditional patriotic symbols, such as the American flag, Mount Rushmore and the Declaration of Independence, while using forceful tactics that his opponents see as un-American, has prompted a renewed discussion of the meaning of patriotism since he returned to office in January.
Trump's adversaries say he routinely seeks to whitewash U.S. history, ignoring episodes of injustice and racial division in favor of a mythical unblemished past. The president and his supporters respond that he is pushing back against progressives' bitter obsession with magnifying the country's flaws and downplaying its greatness.
The clash will get a full airing on July 4, 2026, when the country celebrates its 250th anniversary with enormous pomp. Trump is signaling his intent to use that occasion to promote his vision of patriotism, including the creation of a 'Garden of American Heroes,' a sculpture garden that the White House says 'will memorialize our American heroes for generations to come.' Which heroes to include is likely to be the subject of fierce argument.
Saturday's parade and protest are the immediate flash points.
At a recent hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-California) suggested the parade's $45 million to $50 million price tag makes little sense at a time of cuts in military programs. 'If Congress wrote the Army a $45 million blank check, do you think the Army could find a better way to spend that money than a parade?' Carbajal asked.
Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll responded that the 250th birthday celebration will spur a 'recruiting boom that will fill up our pipeline for the coming years,' so the money will be well-spent. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin) added that 'you cannot put a price tag on patriotism. You cannot. And celebrating arguably — not even arguably — the best army that has ever existed in the history of the planet deserves attention.'
At the celebration in Washington, 150 vehicles, dozens of helicopters, various planes and 6,700 soldiers are expected to take part, the Army has said. The Army's parachute team, the Golden Knights, will drop into the event, delivering an American flag to Trump, who will be watching the proceedings from a reviewing stand. The president will also enlist and reenlist 250 civilians and soldiers, and beyond the parade itself, the day will include a fireworks display, military demonstrations and country music performances.
At the same time, activist groups such as Indivisible, 50501, the American Federation of Teachers and Black Voters Matter are planning to turn out thousands of protesters for the ''No Kings' nationwide day of defiance' that they say will include marches and rallies in about 2,000 locations. In some places, activists will spell out 'No Kings' on a beach or use cards to spell it out on a field.
'Trump is trying to claim that he owns this country, that he is the ruler of this country,' said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible. 'By holding a military parade, it's his attempt to equate the American government with himself. … In these protests, we'll see a lot of patriotism, a lot of flags, a lot of veterans on stages talking about their service. We are not ceding the ground of patriotism.'
Last Friday, thousands of veterans rallied against Trump's proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs and his overhaul of the federal workforce, at a Unite for Veterans protest on the National Mall.
Crow agreed that many veterans will take part in Saturday's protests, adding that the troops taking part in the parade are probably not happy about it, given how unpopular parade duty is in the military.
'On my three combat tours, we were focused on fighting, being physically fit and getting better at the mission, and if we had any time we wanted to be with our families,' the congressman said. 'I guarantee you those 6,000 troops preparing to engage in this parade would rather be doing something else.'
Trump this week framed the event partly as a response to the fact that unlike other nations, the United States had not been planning a commemoration of victory in World War II, even though 'we're the ones that won the war.'
He was equally blunt on NBC's 'Meet the Press' last month. 'We have the greatest missiles in the world,' Trump said. 'We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it.'
Seidule said that it is appropriate to celebrate the accomplishments of the U.S. Army — but also appropriate for Americans to protest if they wish.
'With our 340 million people, we will see it in all ways, and I welcome that. That is the American way,' he said. 'We should have this event, and there should be people protesting. What more American event could you have than to have people protesting as well?'
Olivia George contributed to this report.