The Parade of Embarrassment - How Trump Degraded the Military for His Birthday

Washington, June 14, 2025 – It wasn’t honors that rained down, but ridicule. The United States Army marched through the National Mall this Saturday - heavily armed, orchestrated, routine - and yet it all felt like a grotesquely bloated carnival parade with no punchline. President Donald Trump had summoned the nation for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which also happened to be his 79th birthday. And as so often when the ego outweighs the event, it ended in a spectacle of disorientation.

The first images said more than any press release - a grandstand wrapped in cheap foil, radiating the charm of a garage band gig or a high school homecoming. In front of it stood a man who has never served, posing with a stiff chin and awkward salute as commander-in-chief - Donald J. Trump, caught between storm clouds and bombastic fanfare, jumping up now and then as if to award himself the honors.

The “show” - as the president himself called it on Truth Social - cost, according to government records, around 100 million dollars. Enough money to provide medical care for 7,000 veterans for a year. Instead, HIMARS rocket launchers rolled past, a guitar riff commemorating the Iraq War blasted from the speakers, and somewhere a lone Chinook helicopter hummed over the unmoved crowd. In the air was not the spirit of 1775 but the thick, heavy fog of a manufactured politics of memory - soldiers waved wearily from the tops of tanks, one formed a heart with his hands - a silent protest or simply fatigue, it was unclear. Many marched as if they would rather be anywhere else.

Meanwhile, protests erupted. In more than 2,000 cities, the “No Kings” movement called for resistance against authoritarian spectacle. In Los Angeles, US Marines stood guard in full combat gear in front of the federal building for the first time in decades - silent, hands on weapons, exposed to the stares of the demonstrators. In Washington, activists carried signs with messages like “Feed Veterans - Not Egos.” And yes, there it was again - the chasm between performance and reality, between imperial posturing and social neglect.

A woman named Kathy Straus traveled from Richmond - not to protest, but to place a warning amid the celebration. “I thought it would be more effective to stand here than to protest among people who already agree with me,” she said calmly as female officers in riot gear passed by.

We didn’t stay until the end. It was unbearable - not the pompous militarism, not the performative self-congratulation, not the sad need to imitate strength. It was a political travesty in camouflage - expensive, hollow, shameful. According to the program, it was supposed to thunder for 31 more minutes - tanks, rocket launchers, combat helicopters. Perhaps the sky was the most honest commentator - gray, indifferent, empty.

This parade wanted to demonstrate strength, but it revealed only one thing - a president who loves the military, but only when it applauds him. A people increasingly realizing that it doesn’t need a crown, but dignity. And an army that on this day was not honored - but paraded.