Was Trump's military parade a success?

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. for the best experience.
You're reading the Prompt 2025 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
When I interviewed President Donald Trump a few days before his 2017 inauguration, I asked how he would convince America it is 'great again.' He told me: 'We're going to display our military. That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades.'
On Saturday, he put on that parade, which celebrated the U.S. Army's 250th birthday and is expected to cost taxpayers as much as $45 million. Did it send the message that Trump intended? I'm joined by my colleagues Molly Roberts and Erik Wemple to discuss the spectacle.
— Karen Tumulty, columnist
💬 💬 💬
Karen Tumulty Erik, you were at the parade. How was it? What were the crowds like? On TV, it actually seemed sort of subdued, not the spectacle we were given to expect.
Erik Wemple I had a blast just interviewing people. They were incredibly open, though one guy gave me quite the brush off when he learned that I was with The Post. But your impression was correct, imo.
Molly Roberts Should have said you were with One America News.
Erik Well! It's hard to predict their media allegiances. One Trump supporter told me he'd just listened to 'The Daily' by the New York Times.
Molly Yeah, it was hard to tell on TV whether people were there to celebrate Trump or the Army — obviously a big subject of debate re: the purpose of this whole thing, leading up to it. (I suppose I should be charitable and say the answer can be 'both'!)
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Karen The parade struck me as a pretty effective recruiting tool. And if you weren't listening to Fox News — as I was for a bit — not really all that much about the Birthday Boy.
Molly LOL yeah, I was watching Fox too, and I believe one commentator insisted it was the best way $45 million could be spent when it comes to recruiting. Unsure how you'd test that claim, but …
Erik Let's construct a data model!
Karen My dad was career Air Force, and I spent much of my childhood on bases, so I gotta admit: I love a flyover.
Molly Honestly, I didn't hate the history lesson either. I expected a lot more fanfare and a lot fewer facts.
Erik From where I was stationed, I didn't get the history lesson. There was a huge throng waiting to filter through security checkpoints and many people were still waiting well after it had started.
Molly Perhaps it was just Fox generously providing it, but I read some reporting that some of the info was being broadcast over loudspeakers as well. Loads of stuff about what conflicts a given regiment had been deployed to.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Karen Let's talk about the context: Trump is trying to keep the military out of overseas engagements, even as he is using our troops on U.S. soil to subdue protests. So, much of the parade was about weapons.
Molly Yes, totally. It's hard not to view tanks rolling down the street a little differently when you're worried about violence breaking out in Los Angeles.
Erik 100 percent.
Karen Meanwhile, across the country on Saturday we saw 'No Kings' protests in practically every city and town. How much of an impression will those make?
Molly I would hope that people realize the parade celebrated an Army that helped liberate this country from the tyranny of an overreaching executive! And then see that the protests are about a similar problem.
Karen I was struck by the fact that so many of the 'No Kings' protesters were carrying American flags — clearly trying to wrest that patriotic imagery back from the MAGA movement.
Erik Earlier this year, there was an idea in the media that the resistance was dead or faltering. It wasn't, as these recent protests have shown.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Karen So do we think this parade really sent the message that Trump had hoped?
Molly I guess it depends on what message he hoped for! If you take what he said to you all those years ago at face value, in my view the parade did better than I'd expected — the display itself really did seem to be about the U.S. Army, not the special birthday boy.
Erik Following on that point from Molly: You just cannot overestimate how many people in this country have connections of one sort or another to the military. Either they served or their parents did or they worked as a contractor.
Molly Yeah, it's my lifetime in the liberal D.C. bubble that has blinded me to the extent of people's connection to, and affection for, the military! So maybe that's what Trump hoped for … to teach people like me a little something about the country. 🤣
Karen And yet, so few of us actually serve these days in our all-volunteer military.
Molly But, to an extent, I worry Trump wanted to demonstrate, by tying the event to his birthday and with all that standing up and saluting from his post, that all this military might is at his disposal. Again, maybe I should be more charitable: He also could have been trying to demonstrate that military might to the rest of the world, as a deterrent or a negotiating card.
Karen Back to that interview, Trump told me that he would 'display our military' to convince the country that it was 'great again.' If that was the measure, I think it does help remind us that we are a country of great people, some of whom are willing to put their own lives on the line for the rest of us.
Molly Maybe it helped convince people that America is great … but, as usual with Trump, I'm stuck on the 'again' part.
Erik Well we do pay a lot for it! Remember when Madeleine Albright asked Colin Powell why we have such a great and expensive military if we don't use it? Perhaps Powell should have said simply that we could have a parade!
Molly Yes, as long as we're spending billions on defense, what's another $45 million to get those boys (and girls!) out of their barracks and in front of the American people?
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
Karen At any rate, Trump has scratched that itch. He's had his parade. But his biggest tests as commander in chief are looming right ahead of him.
Molly Did he get that nifty birthday flag from the parachuting Golden Knights, by the way? May have missed that part. But with a souvenir like that, I think he can go home. No need for a third term.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Washington Post

22 minutes ago

• Washington Post

Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla 'Jose'

LOS ANGELES — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as 'Jose Padilla,' a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids . 'I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,' Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. 'I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is.' 'They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'' Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. 'He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,' Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the U.S.'s future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. 'Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement,' Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. 'What happened here was a tragedy,' Vance added. 'You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully.' Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, 'The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.' In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to 'Jose Padilla,' saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the 'dirty bomb' mission. It later emerged through U.S. interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the 'mission' was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case. Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: 'He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.' Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , has defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest U.S. city, home to 3.8 million people. Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years.' Newsom has depicted the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. 'I hope we get that back on track,' Newsom wrote on X. 'We are counting on you, Mr. Vice President.' Vance did not mention either request during his appearance on Friday. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento contributed to this report.

New York Times

24 minutes ago

• New York Times

Dodgers Pledge Aid to L.A. Families Affected by Trump Crackdown

The Los Angeles Dodgers, facing mounting pressure from their Latino fan base, announced on Friday that they had committed $1 million in financial help for families of immigrants who have been 'impacted by recent events in the region.' The announcement, while oblique on exactly which 'recent events' the team was responding to, came after days of calls from community leaders and fans to signal support for its heavily Latino fan base as federal immigration raids have been reported across the Los Angeles area. The raids over the past two weeks have stoked fear and anxiety among many immigrant families, especially Latinos. While the team's announcement fell short of denouncing the federal immigration enforcement efforts, as some fans had hoped for, the Dodgers said more 'community efforts' would be shared soon. 'What's happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected,' Stan Kasten, the president and chief executive of the Dodgers, said in a statement on Friday. 'We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.' The Dodgers, last year's World Series champions and perennial contenders for a decade, carry weight nationally, but to walk through Dodger Stadium is to get a glimpse of how many Latino supporters make up the team's fan base. Songs in Spanish blare over the ballpark's speakers in between innings. Restrooms are labeled in English and Spanish. Fans can opt for a Michelada over a regular ballpark beer. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Fox News

29 minutes ago

• Fox News

JD Vance rails against Newsom, LA mayor for declaring ‘open season on federal law enforcement'

Speaking in Los Angeles Friday, Vice President JD Vance criticized California state and local politicians, especially Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, for "endangering" federal law enforcement and effectively declaring "open season on federal law enforcement." Vance said he was "shocked" to hear that "far-left agitators" have been posting the names, addresses and even family members of federal law enforcement officials in Los Angeles to harass, antagonize and threaten their lives. "Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass have got to stop this craziness," Vance said. "Every single law enforcement officer I talked to today, every single one of them, said they feel like the local leadership — the mayor and the governor — are encouraging these far-left agitators. What is the justification for this?" Vance said he has been told by law enforcement officials in the area that "when they go out, let's say you have a Border Patrol official who needs to go out and arrest somebody, maybe a violent criminal who's also an illegal alien. When that Border Patrol agent goes out to do their job, they said within 15 minutes of them trying to do their job, they have protesters, sometimes violent protesters, who are in their face obstructing them, preventing them from doing their job and endangering their lives. "Why do they have that?" he added. "Because those people have been egged on by local officials. Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that it is open season on federal law enforcement." Newsom has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's use of the National Guard and Marines to help local police quell the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, calling it both illegal and immoral. The governor launched a lawsuit against the federal government to stop the use of the military in response to the riots. Though a district court ruled in Newsom's favor, the 9th Circuit Court ruled Thursday to allow the Trump administration to continue using the military to assist local officials. "They have treated Border Patrol and border enforcement as somehow an illegitimate force instead of what they are, which is the American people's law enforcement trying to enforce the American people's laws," Vance said. "So, when Gavin Newsom encourages violence and rioting, he encourages people to get in the face of our great Border Patrol officers, he is absolutely endangering the lives of federal enforcement." Commenting on the 9th Circuit's ruling, Vance said, "It's interesting that, for the past couple of weeks, Gavin Newsom has said that there's an illegitimate effort to send federal resources to secure a city that he refuses to secure, and what the 9th Circuit said yesterday is that that was a completely legitimate and proper use of federal law enforcement. "The president has a very simple proposal to everybody, in every city, every community, every town, whether big or small. If you enforce your own laws and if you protect federal law enforcement, we're not going to send in the National Guard because it's unnecessary," he said. "But if you let violent rioters burn great American cities to the ground, then, of course, we're going to send federal law enforcement in to protect the people the president was elected to protect. "What I see here today is the great tragedy when a mayor and a governor encourage their citizens to harass and endanger the lives of our police officers and our law enforcement officers," he said. "It's heartbreaking to see, and thank God we've got great people who are willing to persevere despite it."