THE PARADE WAS A GOOD THING. Here’s the first thing to say about Saturday’s military parade in Washington, D.C., honoring the Army’s 250th birthday: It was a good thing to do. It wasn’t a vanity production for President Donald Trump’s birthday. It wasn’t an authoritarian flex. It wasn’t a threat to the American people.
It was, instead, a dignified celebration of one of the great institutions of American life as it, and the United States, marks its 250th year of existence. Trump was right to highlight the Army’s birthday as the beginning of “America250” events. It was also a good parade.
The route ran along Constitution Ave. from the Lincoln Memorial to 15th Street, south of the White House. People experienced it in different ways, depending on their location. I attended as a spectator — not in the press area, not interviewing people, just watching the parade from a spot on Constitution Ave. near 19th Street.
It began with Army history. Leading the parade, with horses and the Fife & Drum Corps, were soldiers in the uniform of the Continental Army, formed June 14, 1775. Then came the Civil War and cavalry from the Western Expansion; more period uniforms, horses, and music. Then World War I, with vehicles and an early tank, and “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.” Then World War II, with everything — lots of troops, vehicles, a Sherman tank, and a flyover of a B-25 bomber and P-51 Mustangs. Then Korea and Vietnam, and the Gulf War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, featuring modern equipment and helicopter flyovers. There were M1 Abrams tanks, mobile rocket launchers, Bradley fighting vehicles, and more.
Truth be told, it was a bit too long. But the Army clearly wanted to showcase its famed divisions and corps, green berets, red berets, tan berets, and the various units, plus the U.S. Military Academy and all the equipment, up to today’s drones and robots. There was a lot to show, and producers did not appear to do much cutting.
It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t showbizzy. Where I was, the audience did not see or hear the videos and production numbers or President Trump’s speech from the reviewing stand, several blocks to the east. In other words, it was not a Trumpy event. It was not the dictator’s self-congratulation that some critics predicted. It was … an Army parade.
The crowd seemed big, but not huge, and it was spread across an extended area given the nature of the event. White House spokesman Steven Cheung tweeted, “Amazing. Despite the threat of rain, over 250,000 patriots showed up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. God Bless the USA!” That is the White House line. All of Trump’s opponents, in the Democratic Party, the media, and elsewhere, will say it was far less. There is no way to know with any certainty, because many years ago, after running into a hornet’s nest of criticism when it released a crowd size estimate that organizers of the Nation of Islam’s Million Man March felt was too low, the National Park Service got out of the business of estimating crowd sizes.
But there is one important thing to remember about crowd size in the nation’s capital. There is a partisan component. Trump wants to hold big, beautiful events in Washington because the setting is so magnificent. But the District of Columbia, and the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia, are heavily, heavily Democratic. Even with Trump’s improved performance in the 2024 election, the District voted 90% for Kamala Harris. In Maryland, Harris’s vote was 74% in Montgomery County and 86% in Prince George’s County. In Virginia, Harris took 78% in Arlington County, 77% in Alexandria, and 66% in Fairfax County.
So, even with the high military presence in some areas, anybody within easy driving distance or public transportation distance of the parade was likely a Democrat. That is just the way it is. It was true in 2017, when Trump insisted that his inauguration crowd was bigger than it was, and it is true now. For a Republican, it’s not really something to worry about.
There were a few old peaceniks in my area of the parade route. The whole time, they held up a long banner that said “WAGE PEACE PRACTICE NONVIOLENCE.” It wasn’t a specifically anti-Trump message; they might have brought the same sign to the last military parade in Washington, the Gulf War victory parade, in 1991.
Another couple of people held up an anti-Trump sign. It was pretty wordy, saying “EVEN THE GENERALS RECOGNIZE HIM AS A FASCIST. WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN HE AUTHORIZES THE MILITARY TO SUPPRESS PROTEST? WILL YOU JUST FOLLOW ORDERS LIKE GOOD GERMANS? REMEMBER THE WHITE ROSE.” (The last part was a reference to a short-lived anti-Nazi group in Germany during World War II.) The sign irritated a few people standing nearby, but mostly no one paid any attention to it. By the way, no authorities came to remove the sign or take the protesters out of the parade area.
Before going to the parade on Saturday, I had to run an errand in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. There was a “No Kings” protest going along Wisconsin Ave., meaning cars drove through a long gantlet of older, mostly white, sign-waving protesters. There was a big turnout, just like in other cities around the country. Later, after attending the parade to be able to compare, it was clear that the “No Kings” group was far less diverse than the crowd at the parade. In commentary on the right, “No Kings” has been ridiculed as a bunch of angry old people, which was certainly what it appeared to be in Bethesda.
One more thing about “No Kings.” The idea behind the nationwide movement was to create a narrative that Trump’s opposition dwarfs his support, and that opposition is growing as everyday Americans are shocked by Trump’s actions. Organizers will say, just look at the demonstrations across the country — millions of people coming out to protest Trump — and then compare that to his puny parade in Washington. We are the real majority!
It’s a tough case to make after the last election, but they’re working hard at it. Still, the debate misses the point of the Army 250th birthday parade. It was about the Army, the Army’s history, and honoring the Army. And that was a good thing.
