The display of Donald Trump’s military might comes amid growing nerves about Trump’s near-authoritarian behaviour, deploying troops on US soil and rounding up thousands to be deported
Mikey Smith reports from Washington ahead of Trump’s parade
Tanks, artillery and military helicopters are on the streets of Washington DC this weekend in a huge display of America’s military might.
And while the official reason is a celebration of the US Army’s 250th anniversary – by lucky coincidence it coincides with Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
It also comes at a time when Donald Trump – already making people nervous with near-authoritarian behaviour – is deploying troops on US soil, probably illegally.
His activation of the California National Guard to crack down on largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles, and the use of Marines as a protective shield around ICE immigration roundup squads has made people a little twitchy.
Meanwhile global events are heaping pressure on the US president – both to stand with Israel after its strike on Iran – and to keep his promise not to use America’s military might in foreign conflicts.
The National Mall – the two-mile-long run of grass and man-made lakes that runs between the Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial – is surrounded by museums and punctured in the middle by the Washington Monument.
While events, protests and festivals are common on the Mall, most of the year it’s a fairly quiet, serene space for sightseers and school groups.
A stroll through it this morning – a muggy, humid morning as it happens – was quite different.
Huge tanks, artillery canons and several military helicopters are already set up ready for tomorrow’s festival – some dating back to the Vietnam War and even World War II.
Chris, a local who – as many DC residents do – works for the government, tells me it’s fascinating to see this kind of equipment up close, but the politics of it feels uncomfortable.
“This is f*****g weird,” he says – after asking me to take a photo of him with an Apache helicopter and the Capitol in the background.
There’s a subtle distinction between the Army’s long planned festival on the Mall – a standalone event with its own stage and schedule of events – and the White House-backed parade, which has a separate, larger stage a few minutes walk away.
Chris tells me many of the people attending tomorrow aren’t coming for the politics – they’ll be veterans and their families, coming to celebrate the sacrifice of servicemen and women to keep the country safe for quarter of a millennium.
But the event – and the parade in particular, is expected to attract a considerably more MAGA crowd as well. How these two groups interact – and what the crossover is like – will be interesting to watch tomorrow.
Earlier, the seething tension already bubbling in the city was illustrated by a protesting cyclist, riding alongside the Mall wih a “F**k Donald Trump” placard – and getting the finger from a fellow cyclist in a high vis vest.
As if to compound people’s nerves around Trump’s creeping authoritarianism, the location of that larger stage – from where Trump will speak after the parade – is notable.
It’s located at the bottom of the Ellipse – a patch of ground to the south of the White House – a stone’s throw away from where he gave a speech on January 6, 2021 – after he’d lost the 2020 election.
He urged his supporters to “fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country any more.”
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Trump supporters marched directly from that speech, up the Mall to the Capitol, where congress was ceremonially counting the electoral votes that would eject their guy from the White House.
A mob of thousands descended on the building in a violent attempted coup, with the intention of overturning the election result by preventing the certification of Trump’s defeat.
Four years later, on the day he returned to office, Trump pardoned 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the insurrection – including members of far-right extremist groups and those convicted of violent offences against police officers.
And tomorrow, he’ll stand on a stage just metres away from the scene of the bloody attack on American democracy – and watch the tanks and soldiers of the military roll by at his whim.
You can understand why locals might feel a little unnerved.