Trump's miserable military parade overshadowed by protests
The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizers of the "No Kings" protests, said in a statement, "More than five million people nationwide rallied at over 2,100 events across the country, condemning President Trump's escalating abuses of power."
Way to go, America. You ruined Trump's parade and made him sad
Nice job, guys. Do you know how hurtful that was for a man who just wanted to have a cool birthday parade that would make him feel like a powerful dictator?
While those protests were massive and made a clear and peaceful point that Americans, only six months into the Trump administration, are fed up, they completely took the shine off the parade in Washington, DC.
Opinion: Trump's military show of force in LA and DC camouflage his failing presidency
The weather there was cloudy with a little rain, the crowd was thin and, while an announcer gave an interesting history of the U.S. Army on its 250th anniversary, the dull pace of tanks and other military vehicles made the event drag.
Troops marched past the VIP section where Trump and administration officials were seated, but they weren't marching in carefully choreographed lockstep like troops have done in past military parades for notorious authoritarians.
Trump was bored and angry during the parade, while protesters had fun
It all felt a bit phoned in and drab. A New York Times reporter noted: "The energy level at the military parade here is a bit desultory."
And Trump? He looked like a kid who wanted a Nintendo Switch 2 for his birthday and instead got a desultory military parade.
He sulked. He slouched. At one point, the band played an instrumental version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," a famous anti-war song that decried wealthy families able to keep their kids out of the draft during the Vietnam War. That probably made Trump's bone spurs hurt.
How dare Americans protest instead of bolstering the president's ego
Through it all, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sat next to the president, looking like a guy about to be held accountable for not making the parade "strong" and "huge" enough.
But it wasn't all Hegseth's fault. This was the fault of all the Americans who chose to take our president's special day and make it about America. You meanies decided that standing up against government-sponsored cruelty against immigrants and vast federal overreach was more important than letting the guy behind the government-sponsored cruelty and the overreaching have a glorious parade that would make everyone think he's awesome.
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For shame, Americans. President Trump has been working tirelessly to enrich himself and not do any of the things he said he would do, other than the be-cruel-to-immigrants thing, and this is how you repay him? By making his parade seem puny and sad while making your own grievances seem widespread and legitimate?
A bad weekend led to Trump going off on liberal cities
Trump was so mad about how the weekend went that on the night of June 15 he announced on social media that "we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good-paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities."
Look what you all did! You made the poor man completely lose his mind and start babbling like a maniac who capitalizes words For No reason!
I hope you're happy with yourselves.
I certainly am. ?
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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