Trump Rips Into Hegseth: Parade “Too Nice,” Soldiers “Too Friendly”

It was supposed to be a thunderclap of power. A triumphal march of steel, discipline, and deadly serious expressions. But instead: waving, smiling, swaying. And all of it – in front of empty stands. Donald Trump is furious. The man who celebrated not just the army but himself on his 79th birthday feels robbed of the spectacle of a lifetime.

“He’s angry at the soldiers,” reports biographer Michael Wolff. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up – by that, he seems to mean they looked too cheerful, waved, appeared happy, and didn’t show a serious military face.” A festival of confusion on all fronts, then, marching through the gray light of Washington, D.C., past bleachers that felt more like a cancellation than a state of emergency.

The president’s wrath hits one man: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. By phone, apparently loud and clear. “He reamed Hegseth out. He told him - the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? Over and over he emphasized - the tone!” Tone – meaning the atmosphere, the framing, the pathos. Not the clatter of boots or the rumble of tank tracks. No – the aura, the narrative, the visual promise of a looming future in which Trump marches at the front and everyone knows: this is the end of democratic pleasantries.

And what did he get instead? Soldiers waved. The parade felt “festive” instead of “menacing,” “cheerful” instead of “fearsome.” The president, it is said, saw it as an affront – against him, against the idea of total discipline, against the choreography of an omnipresent commander in chief. “It didn’t send the message Trump apparently wanted - that he was the commander of a threatening apparatus of power,” Wolff explains.

In fact, a lot went wrong. The troops were out of step at times, the few spectators got lost between barricades, and a thick cloud cover hung over everything like a symbolic warning - even the weather refused to cooperate. And yet Trump claimed it was a total success. “It was beautiful. No rain. The people were fantastic.” Only no one saw them. Instead of applause, mockery rained down – online, offline, internationally. While millions marched in the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations, Trump’s tanks rolled into a void. And so the great day of the Great Leader leaves behind one heavy-handed punchline above all: the president angry at soldiers for being too friendly. Welcome to America, 2025.