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President Trump’s dream of a ‘big beautiful’ military parade set for Saturday

TANKS IN D.C.
Progressives say they'll hold more than 1,500 “No Kings Day” events that day
compiled by Samoa News staff

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Plans for the military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday as part of the celebrations around the Army’s 250th birthday this month are well underway as first detailed by The Associated Press last month, calling for about 6,600 soldiers, 150 vehicles and 50 helicopters to follow a route from Arlington, Virginia, to the National Mall.

Until recently, the Army’s birthday festival plans did not include a massive parade, which officials say will cost tens of millions of dollars. But Trump has long wanted a military parade, and discussions with the Pentagon about having one in conjunction with the birthday festival began a little over two months ago.

The Army 250th birthday happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14. In a statement Friday, Army spokesman Steve Warren said the Army’s birthday celebration will include “a spectacular fireworks display, a parade, and a daylong festival on the National Mall.”

In comments to Fox News Digital, White House officials confirmed a commemorative parade would take place and said it would be one of the first events to kick off a yearlong celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Army planning documents, obtained recently by the AP and dated April 29 and 30, said the parade will include soldiers from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide. They said it would involve a Stryker battalion with two companies of Stryker vehicles, a tank battalion and two companies of tanks, an infantry battalion with Bradley vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers and infantry vehicles.

The plans note that while the parade will begin near the Pentagon, the heavy, tracked vehicles — which would include the Strykers — would be stationed near the Lincoln Memorial and join the procession there, so they will not go over the bridge from Virginia

City officials, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, acknowledged in April that the administration reached out to the city about holding a parade on June 14. At the time, she said that tanks rolling through the city’s streets “would not be good.”

“If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads,” she said.

The Army birthday festival has been planned for more than a year and is slated to include displays of Army equipment, military demonstrations, musical performances and a fitness competition on the National Mall.

The late afternoon parade would be followed by a parachute jump by the Golden Knights, a concert and the fireworks. The planning documents also suggest that civilian participants would include historical vehicles and aircraft and two bands, along with people from veterans’ groups, military colleges and reenactor organizations.

During his first term, Trump proposed having a parade after seeing one in France on Bastille Day in 2017. Trump said that after watching the two-hour procession along the famed Champs-Elysees he wanted an even grander one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

That plan was ultimately dumped due to the huge costs — with one estimate of a $92 million price tag — and other logistical issues. Among those were objections from city officials who said including tanks and other heavy armored vehicles would tear up the roads.

Trump said in a social media post in 2018 that he was canceling the event over the costs and accused local politicians of price gouging.

“NO KINGS DAY”

Meanwhile, “No Kings Day” protests are planned for Saturday across all 50 states and organizers say interest is growing since the crackdown on protesters in L.A.

ABC News is reporting Progressive groups say they'll hold more than 1,500 “No Kings Day” events across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the Trump administration and to counter the military parade in Washington, D.C., marking the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.

The original plan from major progressive organizing group Indivisible and others to counter the military parade with protests was first announced in early May. But Indivisible Co-Executive Director Ezra Levin told MSNBC on Monday night that President Donald Trump’s response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles has brought many more people to the No Kings website, and that the group has scheduled more trainings this week in response to the “overwhelming interest.”

In its May news release announcing the events, Indivisible said that the parade is meant to be a "made-for-TV display of dominance for [Trump's] birthday" and that the president is using the military's birthday to celebrate his own, which also falls on June 14.

Last month, when asked about reports of the military parade by NBC News, Trump said the parade plans were “not for my birthday” but are for Flag Day and to celebrate the military. The Pentagon and Army have said they are planning their own birthday celebration and not planning to sing “happy birthday” to the president.

Indivisible has also called out what it says is overreach by the White House against courts and slammed deportations and administration actions it said have hurt civil rights and decimated services people need.

“This country doesn’t belong to a king -- and we’re not letting him throw himself a parade funded by tens of millions of our taxpayer dollars while stealing from us and stripping away our rights, our freedoms, and the programs our families rely on,” Indivisible said in a statement last month. “On June 14th, we’re coming together to send one clear message: No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.”

In a press release last week Friday, Indivisible said in addition to locations across the country, there are events planned in Europe and South America.

(Sources: Associated Press, Indivisible)