Trump's Military Parade Was a Pathetic Event for a Pathetic President

Yahoo

15-06-2025

Three dozen horses, 28 Abrams tanks, 6,700 soldiers, and millions of taxpayer dollars later, and Donald Trump's military birthday parade was still a flop at best.
A crowd that was well under the administration's projected 200,000 peppered the National Mall Saturday in a festival style event featuring Army info sessions, military fitness challenges, weapons exhibits, and other activities prior to the parade on Saturday. Military members spoke on stage the entire time to a sparse audience, as most of the attendees perused the various offerings, hoisting their children up into the massive tanks and turrets sitting on the mall for pictures.
There was a sense of giddy satisfaction in the air as the parade's 6:00 p.m. start time approached. It was the same feeling I noticed during inauguration weekend: A crowd that felt victorious and vindicated, and knew it was among friends. People rushed to the front of the route as the parade began and expressed genuine awe and joy as Blackhawk helicopters, Howitzers, and other heavy duty war machinery trudged down Constitution Avenue.
But the parade itself was quite boring, save for those few movements. It was generally very quiet—so quiet you could clearly hear the creaks and squeaks of the armored vehicles— with intermittent music that was constantly being lowered so that the parade narrator could announce each battalion. Weak chants of 'USA, USA' popped up every 10 minutes or so. And the majority of the parade was just soldiers walking by—not even marching in step with each other—in military garb from wars past. Children grew weary in the humidity, as did some adults. One man wearing an Inforwars.com shirt kept yelling 'bring out the tanks!!' and complained that 'people got no energy out here.' Another started scrolling on TikTok. There were large cheers for West Point and some confused murmurs for the Boston Dynamics robot dogs.
The event didn't truly begin to feel electric until the parade ended and Trump and JD Vance spoke. Crowds of people hurried to the other side of the mall to catch just a glimpse of Trump as he spoke behind a humongous piece of glass hundreds of yards away for about seven minutes. The finale featured massive fireworks and more music, as people linked arms and swayed while they sang 'I'm Proud to Be an American.'
'No exaggeration.... This is the most patriotic I've ever seen America,' said Malik Meeks, a 20-year-old man who stood alone screaming 'AMERICAAA' into the night sky while the fireworks went off. He is currently attempting to join the Air Force.
Many of the attendees felt that this parade was necessary because the military had been disrespected, weakened, and kneecapped by 'the left.' They believed that a show of force and pride could directly remedy that, cost and optics be damned.
'I think there's a gigantic disconnect between the American populace and the military. The military has turned into a culture of warriors. It's like a family thing now, right?' said Brandon, a 24-year retired Army veteran from Pennsylvania who didn't want to give his last name. Brandon was actually at the last military parade of this stature, the Gulf War victory parade in the summer of 1991. 'People walking down the street will say, 'Thank you for your service,' but … they won't suggest it to their teenage children or the people in their lives.'
This perceived disconnect from the civilian public is exactly why Brandon felt the parade was important.
'I don't think [civilians] really quite understand what it takes or what goes into it. [They think] it's for someone else. 'It's not for me.' Someone else's child, someone else's spouse, someone else's parent.... This is obviously a large kind of national event. But even having a National Guard display at a local carnival, I think helps to bring greater connection between the public and those who serve.'
Air Force member Carlton Guthrie, 22, who was there with his wife Whitney, told me that the tense political moment, particularly in the Middle East, called for a display such as this.
'I think now is a scarier time than people think it is, just because we're not really deployed as much as we used to be in the Middle East. It's probably one of the scariest times in our country's history where we have a bunch of people who hate us. So I think it's a good time to show that we aren't weak, because there's lots of propaganda saying that the army's weak, or the military is getting soft.'
Guthrie also felt that Trump's military support of Israel's bombing of Iran was warranted given that 'they chant Death to America in the streets of Iran. They don't do that on the streets of Israel.... I think if Iran were left there to keep doing what they're doing, it'll just keep growing until it gets to us anyway.'
Justin Walz, who brought his wife and three young children from Farmville, Virginia, to the parade for Father's Day weekend, told me that Trump's parade sent a positive signal to young American men, many of whom he thinks are lost.
'These young boys are looking for a father figure. And currently, there really are no father figures, a lot of fatherless homes,' he said. 'And that's the reason Trump has gained so much popularity in the younger community.'
Several QAnon TikTok influencers were also among the paltry crowd. Judy Alston of Delaware was a proud January 6er, sharing that her son-in-law even called the FBI on her for attending the 2021 insurrection. She went back the very next year. They all gave the usual QAnon spiel—all of our elected officials are sex-trafficking pedophiles, Hillary Clinton drinks kids' blood to stay young, and Trump is somehow the only one brave enough to expose them. They told me that the parade wasn't just a show of force, it was a 'mask off' event that would bring an end to the '250 years of disrespect' that the military has faced. One of them wore a 'King Trump' shirt, while the other had a Pepe the frog necklace. One gifted me a small book by Loy Brunson about why socialism was an 'existential threat' and told me to save it for my future children.
Each Trump supporter justified the parade's hefty price tag by bringing up 'illegals taking American jobs' or 'all the other stupid stuff we pay for.' One man chalked the critique up to simple 'radical left nonsense,' and was surprised when I told him that libertarian Senator Rand Paul had levied that same critique.
The embarrassingly low turnout was exacerbated by the fact that not everyone was there to support Trump.
Two veterans in attendance made it clear that they were separating the military's birthday from Trump's birthday, as they disapproved of the president but felt an obligation to the Army to be there. One older veteran named Al told me he thought Trump wasn't 'thinking before he moved.'
Many protesters (and even some 'neutral' attendees) emphasized that they wanted to reclaim and redefine patriotism. They weren't anti-military in the slightest, but they were against the way MAGA now feels synonymous with the armed forces.
'A huge reason why we're here is because Trump doesn't own patriotism in this country, and I don't think we should let him,' said Eric Whitman, 42, of Washington, D.C.. 'I think it's important for every American regardless of what party you're in or who you voted for to come and support the military.... I think we're taking a horrible turn right now in light of the administration's policies, but we're still American.'
Partners Jordan and Isabel, both in their 30s, were walking around the grounds with signs that read 'Nobody paid me to be here, I protest for free' and 'Happy 250th birthday Army, sorry TACO has you marching in the heat,' using the moniker for Trump that stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
'To an extent, the military and the American flag, for a long time, have been kind of symbols of the MAGA group, but I don't think that's a fair representation to either of those parties,' Isabel noted. 'So we're trying to take it back again, and just show support for the military without showing support to MAGA.'
Then there was Matt Hawthorne. While Trump was speaking, chants of 'USA, USA' broke out that weren't in response to the president. A small crowd had formed around one large white man with glasses who was screaming 'traitor' and 'rapist' while Trump supporters surrounded him, shouting him down. They took Hawthorne's protest sign, calling him a 'stupid motherfucker.' He immediately pulled out another one that read 'Cheer the troops. Boo the traitor. Using them as props,' and continued to holler until Park Police came over and the crowd dispersed.
Hawthorne told me he wasn't afraid for his safety as a 'big, powerful' white man. 'Trump said that protest would be met with 'heavy force.' … That's when people have to protest,' he said. 'I am the safest person who can protest, and so it's crucial that I do that.'
Like other liberal resistors, Hawthorne had no issue with the parade conceptually, just Trump's use of the military.
'I support our military. I think it's great to celebrate the Army's birthday. I think that doing it so it ends at the White House on Trump's birthday, with numerous birthday wishes for him, is wildly inappropriate and reminiscent of dictatorships around the world,' Hawthorne said. 'If they wanted to do a historic parade, like a reconnection in Lexington and Concord, that would have been a wonderful birthday celebration for the army. Traditionally, when the military has gone through D.C., it starts or ends at the U.S. Capitol to represent the people's authority over our armed forces. Ending it at the White House is new, and shows how this president thinks that he should be the ultimate authority, which is authoritarianism.'
While MAGA loyalists left the parade satisfied, it's clear that many Americans feel very conflicted about what U.S. military power and patriotism mean in the Trump era. And the low turnout will force MAGA to go to great lengths to spin a clear flop as a success. Trump wanted badly for this to be a grand, raucous, March on Washington-level event and it just wasn't close. Now American taxpayers paid millions so a few people could watch tanks rumble down the street while soldiers marched in centuries old war cosplay. Happy birthday, Mr. President.