Trump’s military ‘birthday’ extravaganza could tip from celebration into intimidation
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson
As the president gets the public spectacle he’s always wanted, he warns that any counter-protests will be met with a ‘very heavy force’
A column of tanks has been snaking across the US by rail, while drones and attack helicopters soar over Washington's National Mall. Meanwhile on the opposite coast, armoured military vehicles drive down an LA highway and National Guard troops patrol in riot gear.
Americans have witnessed two highly unusual displays of military might this week, as the nation prepares for a parade in DC to celebrate the army’s 250th birthday just as Donald Trump deploys troops to deal with protests in California against his migration policies.
Whether these two events will be linked in any way when Trump presides over the military extravaganza on Saturday evening is being closely watched, with concerns that the event – which is also taking place on the president’s 79th birthday – could tip from celebration into intimidation.
“If he references LA with the implication that, ‘look what happens, look what we can do’, that becomes highly problematic and a very inappropriate use of the military,” said Michael Miller, a professor of political science at George Washington University.
Trump has already issued a warning to groups planning counter- demonstrations across the country. The “No Kings” movement has organised hundreds of demonstrations on Saturday, ranging from children’s events in local parks to a large march in Philadelphia.
It labels the military parade “a made-for-TV display of dominance” and calls on people to “reject authoritarianism and show the world what democracy really looks like”.
Asked about the counter-protests, Trump told reporters: “This is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”
His comments came after he deployed 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, where Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been raiding places of work in a renewed effort to meet quotas for arresting undocumented migrants.
The sweeping raids provoked street protests, and Trump said on Wednesday that Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground” if he hadn’t intervened.
DC mayor Muriel Bowser is worried that the tanks will cause millions of dollars in damage to the streets
The anti-ICE protests have since spread to cities including New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Seattle.
While most of the protests have been peaceful, in Los Angeles cars have been set ablaze, shops looted, and concrete blocks thrown at law enforcement.
California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has called Trump’s military deployment “the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president” and said LA law enforcement was well equipped to deal with protests and needed no military assistance.
Traditionally the US military is only deployed domestically during natural disasters, and not since 1965 has a president sent the National Guard to a city without a governor's approval.
It is against this backdrop that Washington will host its first military parade in nearly 35 years, with 28 tanks due to roll down Constitution Avenue alongside armoured vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and other artillery. Many of the vehicles arrived by train from Texas.
Fifty aircraft including Black Hawks, Chinooks and Apache attack helicopters will take to the skies, as around 7,000 soldiers march through the heart of the capital.
Up to 200,000 people are expected to pack the National Mall for a spectacle costing at least $45m. Nineteen miles of security fencing has been installed and thousands of FBI and secret service agents are monitoring the area.
Critics have complained about the cost, while DC mayor Muriel Bowser is worried that the tanks will cause millions of dollars in damage to the streets.
Then there are the optics, with large military parades often linked with authoritarian regimes such as North Korea, Russia, China and Iran, which hold such shows of force every year.
Trump pushed for a military parade in his first term, but his then-defence chief James Mattis thought it would “harken back to Soviet Union-like displays of authoritarian power”, and that he would rather “swallow acid” than watch one, a book by his former top aide claimed.
Another defence secretary, Mark Esper, refused to federally mobilise the military during protests after the killing of George Floyd. He wrote in a memoir that Trump asked him if it was possible to shoot protesters “in the legs or something”.
Trump now has a fully compliant defence secretary in Pete Hegseth, who has backed the military deployment in LA and suggested that the National Guard could be deployed to counter protests in other cities if needed. He has also enthusiastically embraced the parade.
Trump hopes he will finally get the public spectacle he always wanted, which he was denied on inauguration day when freezing weather forced the proceedings indoors. But the forecast for Saturday evening suggests showers and possible thunderstorms, raising the prospect of literal rain on Trump’s parade.
Photograph by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
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