How Fox News is working with Trump to make his military parade a full-blown MAGA festival

13 June

Fox News' Laura Ingraham at Turning Point USA's 2023 Young Women's Leadership Summit in Grapevine, Texas on June 9, 2023 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

If President Donald Trump wanted to fill his military parade — which is set for this Saturday, June 14 in Washington D.C. — with well-known Democratic veterans, it wouldn't be hard to do so. The options would range from former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) — a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War.

Rep. Mikie Sherill (D-New Jersey), the 2025 Democratic gubernatorial nominee in her state, is a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot.

But a recurring claim from Trump is that Democrats don't love the military the way that MAGA Republicans do. In an article published by The Atlantic on June 13, journalists Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, and Missy Ryan describe the partisan tone that Trump and his allies are giving the military parade — and note the participation of Fox News alumni.

"Just four months ago," the reporters explain, "the Fox News host Steve Doocy gave a social-media send-off to his young producer Ariel Abergel, who had announced that he was leaving the network. Alongside a montage of the two traveling through Iowa, Doocy reminisced about their three years together and affectionately razzed Abergel as 'Ari the driver.'"

Scherer, Parker, and Ryan add, "Now, Abergel, who finished college in 2021 and is in his mid-20s, finds himself in a much — much — bigger producing job: He's been tasked by President Donald Trump with overseeing the nation's 250th birthday celebration as executive director of America250…. Abergel's operation helped fundraise for Trump's speech on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, where the president denounced his political rivals before a backdrop of active-duty troops."

Abergel, the journalists point out, isn't the only one helping to give the parade a partisan flavor.

"Abergel, who interned for Trump during his first term and worked briefly in First Lady Melania Trump's office, has hired another recent college graduate, Aidan Golub, as his chief of staff, according to Golub’s LinkedIn account," Scherer, Parker and Ryan report. "He has brought over others from Fox News to help the organization, and added top campaign advisers to Trump, including the fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke, events planner Justin Caporale and senior adviser Chris LaCivita. The former Fox News host Monica Crowley, who now serves as chief of protocol for the United States, has been appointed the 'principal media representative' of America250. Several vendors who had been working on preparations for next year, meanwhile, have been fired."

According to Scherer, Parker, and Ryan, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) told The Atlantic "that Trump's leadership has been making decisions without informing or seeking the consent of the bipartisan commission that oversees America250."

The journalists report, "Watson Coleman, a member of the commission, said that she intended to 'fight' to return the group to its nonpartisan purpose, and that tomorrow's parade was 'being run under the banner of America250 without advance notice to, or consent from, the members of the Commission.'"

Read the full article for The Atlantic at this link (subscription required).

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