Soldiers march during the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C., May 27, 2013.
Trump is planning a giant military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., to coincide with his 79th birthday on June 14. According to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the parade was pushed by the White House.
Bad enough that the nation has to display its militarism in such a crude, authoritarian way. To do it at the behest of the most authoritarian president in the nation’s history who wants a big military parade on his birthday is disgraceful.
Plans call for 6,686 soldiers, 50 aircraft, seven bands, and 152 vehicles — including M-1 Abrams tanks and vintage World War II Sherman tanks — moving past a reviewing stand near the White House, where Trump will be. The parade is scheduled to last nearly four hours and be capped off with a fireworks display.
The White House says the purpose of the parade isn’t just to celebrate Trump’s birthday but also to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which happens to fall on the same day.
Rubbish. The only thing that happened on June 14, 1775, was the Continental Congress’s authorizing the enlistment of expert riflemen.
If any day deserves to be celebrated as the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, it’s the following day, June 15, when George Washington was appointed its commander-in-chief.
George Washington himself would have recoiled at any military parade in his honor.
When in 1782 Colonel Lewis Nicola, writing on behalf of army officers, proposed to Washington that he become the king of the newly formed United States, Washington vehemently rejected the idea, responding that he would not become “George the First” after fighting against “George the Third.”
The giant military parade planned by Trump dishonors the memory of the Army’s first commander-in-chief.
We have no kings in America.
If you’d like to make this point forcefully, consider joining the nationwide protest scheduled for June 14. More details can be found on the Bluesky thread here. Events will also be listed here.
Let’s make this a birthday King Trump will never forget.
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.