On Saturday, June 14th, Donald Trump held a military parade in Washington to celebrate his 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the formation of the U.S. Army.
The parade featured armored tanks, helicopters, and historical military equipment. It had more than 6,000 uniformed troops, dozens of tanks and howitzers, hundreds of armored vehicles and other large weapons, 34 horses, two mules, a dog and even robot dogs.
The ceremonies were intended to pay homage to the various wars that the United States fought in and the soldiers who fought them.
But of course the parade didn’t address all the military interventions that the United States Army has been involved in, focusing instead on those considered glorious and victorious. There was no mention the so-called Indian Wars which committed ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples to steal their land. There was no mention of the Spanish-American War which was fought over which imperial power would control the peoples and resources of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. There was no mention of the countless military occupations in Latin America like Haiti, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and others throughout the years. There was no mention of troops being sent to Russia to try to crush the 1917 Russian Revolution in its infancy. There was no mention of the massive bombing campaigns of Cambodia and Laos in the context of the war against Vietnam that killed, wounded and destroyed the lives of millions. As expected, it was a complete sanitizing of the real role that the U.S. military has played around the world.
While the official numbers haven’t been released, the parade cost as much as $45 million. This is at a time when Elon Musk’s DOGE team has rampaged through government to lay off tens of thousands in desperate attempts to cut budgets and when the most recent federal budget is proposing to cut Medicaid for an estimated 5.2 million people. Clearly, it was a monumental waste of money they like to claim is scarce.
On top of this, the parade just wasn’t the big hit Trump and his billionaire backers were hoping for. Many of the members of the military marching in the parade were clearly not enthusiastic about being there. Even many within Trump’s inner circle were visibly bored by the tedious event. Marco Rubio yawned and Trump himself seemed to nod off at one point.
Probably the worst part for Trump was the missing audience he was hoping would fill the streets of the capital to celebrate him. Despite his communications team claiming that 250,000 people showed up, the number is probably closer to 40,000 with many stands empty and many people leaving early. He wanted energy and adulation, and instead he got a parade that comedians and even serious commentators are calling pathetic.
If Trump’s goal was to normalize militarism, celebrate imperialism, hype up nationalist sentiment and intimidate us, he failed. When Saturday was all said and done, his birthday parade that was supposed to be a show of strength was more a show of weakness. He’s not nearly as strong as wants us to believe.
But despite the flop, he’s still in power. The billionaires still support him, so he’s still going to do his best to take from us and give to them. He’s still going to destroy the lives of working people, stir up hatred to keep us divided, and use some of those weapons to wreak havoc around the world.
While their spectacle in Washington D.C. was a flop, the real story was in big cities and small towns across the country, where roughly 4-6 million people flooded the streets. Fittingly, on the same day as the parade of the wannabe king, people participated in one of the largest protests in American history in what was called, “No Kings Day.”
The “No Kings” demonstrations, on top of the militant struggles in Los Angeles and elsewhere against ICE raids have shown that there is an appetite among wide sections of the population to fight against Trump’s agenda. These are all important steps forward. But alone, they are not enough. Only through the struggle of working class people can we really challenge all of the attacks that we face.
It’s up to us to stop him and the system he represents!
