Make Parades Great Again?

The thunderous opening bars of Heart’s “Barracuda” blared from the loudspeakers as M1 Abrams tanks rolled down Constitution Avenue under the approving eyes of President Trump.

The power ballad seemed designed to inject some much-needed energy into the crowd of several thousand spectators dotting the hill between the Washington Monument and Trump’s viewing stand south of the Ellipse. Saturday was a hot and humid day in the District, with the mercury topping out at 84 degrees. Muggy grey overcast, thanks to wildfires in New Jersey, prompted air quality alerts. By the time the parade started at 6 p.m., most of the crowd had been outside for hours waiting in the snaking security line to get into the perimeter.

But the oppressive humidity and threat of rain didn’t keep the Trump faithful away. While on paper the parade was meant to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday, the amount of MAGA paraphernalia vastly outnumbered the Army gear. Trump supporters came ready to use the military display as a celebration of MAGA’s return to the White House.

The festivities happened to coincide with the commander-in-chief’s 79th birthday, and his fans were ready to party. After Trump took his seat–flanked by members of his Cabinet, the vice president’s family, and first lady Melania Trump–the crowd serenaded him with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” as the first soldiers marched by.

The first hour of the patriotic procession was a literal march through military history, from the Continental Army’s origins in 1775 to today’s modern weapons of war. The energy of the crowd quickly dissipated as the emcee detailed the particulars of buttons on Civil War uniforms, the origins of Pershing boots designed for French trenches, and the innovations behind the M16 rifle. At one point the grinding gears of the World War II-era M4 Sherman tank pierced through the murmuring crowd.

“She needs some oil!” one spectator yelled as the tank rumbled along.

But there were a few moments that shook the crowd awake. The airborne demonstrations from P-51 Mustang fighter planes and the B-25 “flying fortress” stirred spectators to excitedly look up at the sky. When the parade emcee detailed how certain pieces of military equipment were deployed on the frontlines in Ukraine, scattered boos rose from the mostly MAGA crowd along the National Mall.

An hour into the program, organizers sidelined the emcee in favor of piped-in music between marching bands and convoys. There was “Thunderstruck,” “Jump,” “Enter Sandman,” “Sweet Child O’Mine,” and ironically, “Fortunate Son.” Despite all the trappings of a MAGA rally, “YMCA” was nowhere to be heard.

The U.S. military has long prided itself on being apolitical, but Saturday’s parade served as fresh fodder for Trump’s critics who charge him with politicizing the Army.

Trump featured prominently in several pretaped videos played between processions, which included footage from his controversial appearance at Fort Bragg last week and his commencement speech at West Point where he wore a MAGA hat to address graduating cadets. The Army is also investigating how vendors selling “Make America Great Again” gear were allowed in Fort Bragg’s grounds before Trump’s speech, according to The New York Times.

Military parades are not common in modern American iconography. Saturday’s parade—the first large-scale military demonstration in D.C. since the end of the Gulf War in 1991—was an even rarer peacetime military procession.

Officials estimated the parade cost nearly $50 million, not counting the millions it might cost to repair D.C. streets that were not designed to endure heavy military equipment. Despite the MAGA-friendly throng, most Republican lawmakers skipped the parade and expressed unease with the proceedings.

“We were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said last week before the parade. “We were proud not to be that. I'm not proposing that that's the image they want to project, but I'm worried about the image, that it isn't necessarily the best image to show.”

The group notably did not organize a D.C. demonstration, but isolated groups of protesters were present inside the security perimeter.

One protester silently sat dressed in the red and white habit from The Handmaid's Tale with her head bowed and wrists tied. At one point, a Trump supporter stood with his back to her, blocking her from the crowd.

“I don’t know, I never watched the show,” he said when asked about the woman he was concealing. “She’s a narcissist is all I know.”

The Army and other branches of the military have had to walk a fine line. Earlier in the day, Lt. Gen. Joseph A. Ryan described the parade as “a wonderful way to honor the soldiers” and avoided addressing any concerns with the commander-in-chief.

The parade did its best to keep the soldiers front and center. The demonstration culminated in an enlistment ceremony, with the president swearing in new soldiers and honoring troops reenlisting in the Army.

After, the Trumps left the stage, a mass exodus began, quickly turning the few exits into crowded chokepoints. As hundreds struggled to leave the viewing area before the fireworks began, one attendee remarked that they were “ducks in the pond” along the 7-foot-tall security fence–now as common at large D.C. events as T-shirt vendors.

The remark was a grim reminder about the recent spate of political violence. Saturday began with the news that two Minnesota state lawmakers and their families were the targets of a political assassination attempt. Also on Saturday, a protester was killed at a demonstration in Utah. And two months ago, a man tried to burn down the Pennsylvania executive residence with the governor and his family inside.

Trump did not address the day’s violence in his uncharacteristically brief and restrained remarks at the end of the roughly two-hour parade. Instead, Trump praised the Army as “the greatest, fiercest, and bravest fighting force ever to stride the face of this earth.”

"Every other country celebrates their victories," Trump said. "It's about time America did, too."

Left unsaid was whether he was referring to the Army's victories or his own.