Political scientist rips Trump’s 'deeply anti-democratic' military 'spectacle'

This Saturday, June 14, large demonstrations will be held all over the United States in response President Donald Trump's military parade in Washington, DC. The protests, from Seattle to Philadelphia to Chicago, are being billed as the "No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance" and a rejection of his "corrupt, authoritarian politics."

Trump is describing the parade on June 14, which is his 79th birthday, as a celebration of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary. But the No Kings protesters are arguing that the parade isn't really honoring the military — it is a celebration of Trump's birthday and the MAGA movement.

Trump is threatening the No Kings protesters with "force."

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In the White House Oval Office on Tuesday, June 10, Trump made no distinction between violent and peaceful protesters when he told reporters, "For those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force."

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on June 12, Jeffrey C. Isaac — a political science professor at Indiana University, Bloomington — describes the military parade as shameless self-aggrandizement on Trump's part and argues that the No Kings demonstrators are the true "patriots."

"Despite his professions of love for the Declaration (of Independence)," Isaac writes, "Trump acts every day more and more like an absolute monarch — and does so without the slightest awareness of the contradiction between his autocratic imperiousness and the values outlined in Declaration, whose purpose was to advance a republican vision of a government without a king or royal family. No less troubling, his followers embrace it all, celebrating the origins of the republic and the symbolism of the Declaration while pledging allegiance to a single man who so obviously knows nothing about the Declaration or the Constitution and who recently stated that he 'does not know' whether or not he is even legally required to abide by the Constitution."

Isaac adds, "It is hard to understand such extreme partisanship and such credulous suspension of disbelief in tyranny."

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The political science professor describes the June 14 military parade as a "Kim Jong-Un-style celebration" that is divorced from the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

"This is MAGA patriotism in action — the merging of the U.S. flag with the Confederate battle flag and the Trump flag, and the conflation of patriotism with racist reaction, violence, and Trump himself, the megalomaniac who has declared that 'I was saved by God to make America great again,'" Issac warns. "The Trumpian June 14, 2025 parade and celebration will be the successor to that angry insurrection of January 6, 2021 — a celebration of 'patriotism' that is deeply anti-democratic, and of a man who is the most authoritarian president in American history. If you want to see true patriotism this June 14, turn away from Trump’s propagandistic spectacle and look instead to those responding across the country with a loud, proud chant of 'No Kings!'"

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Jeffrey C. Isaac's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.