Latest news with #Trump79
Fox News
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
OneRepublic singer voices support for parade celebrating Army's 250th anniversary
The lead singer for the pop band OneRepublic voiced support for President Donald Trump's military parade that commemorated the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. "I have around 20 family members & grandparents that all fought in wars from the revolutionary war (actually) thru to WWII / Korea," Ryan Tedder wrote in what appeared to be an Instagram story that has since been deleted. "All politics & parties and righteous indignation aside it's a super bummer that instead of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the USA ARMY and all those who have fought and died on our behalf... We're protesting." The parade, which was held on Saturday – also Flag Day and Trump's 79th birthday – was meant to honor America, according to remarks the president gave in the Oval Office last week. "We're going to celebrate our country for a change," Trump said. As a sign of opposition to the parade, many liberals held "No Kings" protests around the country, supported by Walmart heiress Chrissy Walton, to protest Trump and the parade recognizing the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Tedder said that he doesn't support any party, but wanted to support the service and sacrifice of those in the military. "I haven't been a card carrying political member of either side in over 20 years & think at this point everything is absurd 99% of the time," the OneRepublic singer and songwriter wrote. "But I'd like to say THANKYOU to all of the Army service members active and retired and those who have given their lives to protect our protest." Other musicians and celebrities spoke out in criticism of the parade. Nancy Wilson with the band Heart shared a post on Instagram saying that she was upset that her song "Barracuda" was played during the event. "Earlier today, during a parade held in support of our nation's military and organized by President Donald Trump, the song 'Barracuda' by Heart was played without permission or authorization from us," Wilson said in the Instagram post. "'Barracuda,'" written and performed by Ann and I, is a powerful piece of music that was never intended for political use," she added. "As daughters of a U.S. Marine Corps major, we hold a deep and abiding respect for the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces. On a day meant to honor that service, it's important that music used in such settings reflects not only the tone of the event but also the wishes of the artists who created it." Singer and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo also took to Instagram to voice her disapproval of Trump and the ICE immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles. "I've lived in LA my whole life and I'm deeply upset about these violent deportations of my neighbors under the current administration," Rodrigo said on her Instagram story. "LA simply wouldn't exist without immigrants," she added. "Treating hardworking community members with such little respect, empathy, and due process is awful. I stand with the beautiful, diverse community of Los Angeles and with immigrants all across America. I stand for our right to freedom of speech and freedom to protest." Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day, called out Trump as well at the Download Festival in Donington Park in the U.K. on Friday. "Donald Trump in his administration is a fascist government," Armstrong said. "And it's up to us to fight back." Fox News Digital reached out to Tedder for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump holds military parade in Washington as millions protest
Donald Trump finally got his wish to hold a military parade in Washington DC on Saturday, after thousands of soldiers accompanied by tanks, aircraft and helicopters marched through the National Mall in a celebration of the army's 250th birthday, while across the country, millions of people protested against his administration. It was the first military parade in the nation's capital since 1991 – which celebrated the end of the Gulf war – and took place on the day Trump turned 79. The president had tried and failed to hold such an event during his first term, but made it happen just months into his second, albeit at what wound up being an especially tense moment for the country. On Saturday, millions of protesters took to the streets of towns and cities nationwide to condemn the president in a wave of demonstrations dubbed 'No Kings'. In Los Angeles, federalized national guard troops and US marines ordered there by Trump to protect immigration agents several days ago remained on the streets over the objection of local leaders, and again faced off with protesters. Related: Trump coveted a military spectacle but his parade proved underwhelming: 'Just kind of lame' And the day began with news that a Democratic state representative and her husband had been killed in Minnesota, in what the governor said 'appears to be a politically motivated assassination'. Another Democratic state senator and his wife were shot, but both are expected to survive, while the assailant remains at large. Within the heavily fortified National Mall on Saturday afternoon, there were scant signs of those brewing crises. The president arrived to cheers and chants of 'We love Trump!', taking a seat on a reviewing stand next to defense secretary Pete Hegseth and first lady Melania Trump. The event began 30 minutes late to avoid a downpour that never quite arrived. When he spoke, Trump refrained from injecting the partisan politics and insults he does into just about every other speech, including when addressing army soldiers earlier this week. His tone was instead patriotic, with Trump saying: 'Every other country celebrates their victories. It's about time America did too. That's what we're doing tonight.' While there was no shortage of the president's faithful in the crowd of tens of thousands, also others were drawn out of curiosity, or to condemn Trump in what amounted to hostile territory. 'We're supporting him and the military,' said Dan Funk, 68, who flew in from Nebraska to see their son-in-law march in the parade. 'Lot of patriots. Lots of people who are happy Trump's in office. I love it,' said his wife, Deb Funk, 61. 'We need some patriotism in our country. There's too much garbage going on.' Pat Douglas strolled down the National Mall in a desert camouflage tunic he wore during his 24 years in the army, on which he had pinned the purple heart and three bronze stars he was awarded for his service. 'It's a good thing,' the 65-year-old said of the parade. 'This is what brought us here. 250 years, it's something that still needs to be defended and supported.' And while some Democrats have accused Trump of using the parade to celebrate his birthday, Douglas said, 'This has got nothing to do with the president.' Many others in the crowd came down just to enjoy the show, which featured the army's Golden Knights parachute team landing on the White House lawn, an enlistment ceremony presided over by Trump and a fireworks display. A Peruvian who was working in Washington DC said he came by to better understand American culture. Yassine Ahssini, a Moroccan who moved to the United States three-and-a-half years ago after being picked for a diversity visa, was drawn by the fact that no such parade had been held for 34 years. 'It's just something you don't see every day,' he said. Yet it's also an event that city leaders and residents, who are used to seeing their streets and monuments taken over for political events, only grudgingly welcomed. The federal district is strongly Democratic, and its non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, denounced the event on Friday, saying: 'President Trump's longstanding wish to waste millions of taxpayer dollars for a performative military parade in the style of authoritarian leaders is finally coming true on his birthday.' Coming at a cost the army estimates to be between $25m and $45m, the parade's preparations have caused the closure of busy roads for up to four days, while flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport were halted during the event. City leaders expressed concerns that the tanks and armored vehicles will damage roads not designed for their weight, prompting the army to place metal plates on parts of the route, and outfit the equipment with rubber on their treads. 'No Kings' did not plan a protest in the city. But a different group called Refuse Fascism organized a protest earlier on Saturday that saw 300 people march to the White House, chanting: 'Fascist America, we say no! Now's the time for Trump to go!'. Related: Gathering stormclouds can't wipe smile from Trump's face as long-held dream of military parade is realised 'America does not do military parades like this,' said Chris Yeazel, a 40-year-old army veteran, who served in Iraq and took part in the march. 'Everything is just authoritarianism. He's try to create chaos and become a dictator.' Small groups of protesters came into the event, quietly sitting on the grass holding signs that read 'No Kings', or criticizing the money spent on the parade, while enduring sporadic insults from the crowd. Four high schoolers from Washington DC walked in wearing white undershirts that read 'I ♥ USA' on the front, and 'Fuck Trump' on the back. As the crowd filtered out, one man spotted the group and said, 'love the front, hate the back', before handing them a sticker for the Proud Boys militia group. 'This is where we're from, and we want to show that this isn't okay for anyone to do, especially the president,' said Ethan Hettenback, 16. 'We need to show people that, like, no matter how many pro-Trump people come into this, there's always going to be people who believe it's not right.'
The Guardian
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump coveted a military spectacle but his parade proved underwhelming: ‘Just kind of lame'
On Saturday, as a crowd of thousands of people near the Washington Monument listened, a loudspeaker dramatically announced the names of America's secretary of defense, vice-president and president. The final name received a modest roar that surely flushed the watching commander-in-chief with validation. With that, and with the boom of a 21-gun salute, the military parade that Donald Trump had coveted for years finally began. A protester, Nicky Sundt, kept a lonely and mostly silent vigil at the side of the road. She held a sign depicting a cartoon Trump brushing back his comb-over to reveal a swastika emblazoned on his forehead. The placard said 'Save our democracy'. Standing near her – as a 'counterprotest to the counterprotest to the protest, or something,' as one of them put it – a group of pro-Trump men held court. One was draped in an American flag. Another had a giant picture of Trump, in a crown, with the exhortation 'Trump for king'. For the next couple of hours, in heat and occasional drizzle, spectators watched as the US army celebrated its 250th birthday – and, although he claims it is a coincidence, Trump's 79th – with America's largest and most controversial military parade in decades. Troops marched. Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled. Helicopters clattered. Paratroopers plunged out of the overcast sky. Yet, for all of it, the parade was somehow neither the totalitarian North Korean spectacle that critics had grimly predicted, nor the triumph of Maga nationalism that Trump's most diehard fans craved. It was just a parade – and a parade that was, for all its millions of dollars spent, controversy engendered, and exhausting security precautions, a little underwhelming. Since his first term, when he saw and was deeply impressed by a Bastille Day parade in Paris, Trump made no secret of his desire to hold a grand military review of his own. Military leaders, cognizant of the high costs and reputational issues of the idea, have in the past been resistant. Now, no longer. The event was not without problems, however. For one, the weather kept threatening to literally rain on the parade. For another, recent news developments have both distracted the world's attention from the parade and cast an ugly pall on it. In California, national guardsmen and US marines have been deployed against the will of state authorities after Ice deportation raids have sparked widespread protests. In the Middle East, Israel's attack on Iran has led to deadly retaliation. And early Saturday morning, an assassin impersonating a police officer shot two Democratic lawmakers and their families at their homes in Minnesota, killing a state representative and her husband and wounding a state senator and his wife. Trump's plans for a military parade also sparked protests in many cities, including in Washington DC, where a few hundred gathered to chant, 'Deportations, we say no / Now's the time for Trump to go / Ice Gestapo, we say no / Now's the time for Trump to go…' Armed with signs declaring 'All hail Commander Bone Spur' (Trump was medically excused from serving in the Vietnam war) and 'History is watching', they marched to the White House. Trump's attitude to the rule of law 'is scary', explained one marcher in her 20s, who asked to be identified only as Madison. 'I would like to see Donald Trump impeached and imprisoned.' As she and the other leftists marched, a young man, bare chested and wearing a bucket hat, approached a demonstration marshal. He seemed confused. He wanted to know where the protest for the opposite point of view could be found. Downtown Washington was, in fact, thronged with people representing both points of view, and they could be distinguished, much of the time, on sight – with preppy attire and the occasional Maga accessory marking Trump's fans, and Covid masks, dark clothing, and a general glower designating anti-Trumpers. The mood at the actual army parade was cordial enough, in part because the overwhelming majority of attendees seemed to be either Trump supporters, military families or mostly apolitical daytrippers who just wanted to see a parade. Yet the crowd was on the smaller side, given the magnitude of the event. Similarly, although the army's marching went smoothly, the larger public event seemed less than well-planned. The garbage cans, few and far between, were overflowing. There weren't enough exits. The only food source for thousands of people was a handful of food trucks with lines of 40 or 50 people waiting at each. Because the parade closed down blocks and blocks and there was a dearth of signs with clear directions, it was also extraordinarily difficult to find one's way in or out. A secret service officer, trying to explain the general confusion, just sighed. 'Nobody knows what's going on.' A tent managed by a beverage company handed out room-temperature bottles of an energy drink, Phorm. The flavor, called Screamin' Freedom, tasted like hard candies dissolved in water, and an advisory on the cans warned that they were not to be consumed by minors or pregnant women. Although the military has agreed to cover the estimated $25m to $45m price of the parade, including the costs of reinforcing streets to protect them against so much heavy machinery, residents of Washington have been less than thrilled. The parade's attendees seemed to be tilted toward people who had traveled from suburban Virginia or Maryland or even further afield. At one point a young girl walked by wearing a Mennonite bonnet. It wasn't quite Maga Woodstock, but it was close. Chelsea, a woman in her 30s wearing a Maga hat, came all the way from New Jersey. Asked what she thought of Trump's decision to deploy the military in LA, she said, 'You don't have leadership in that state. The [Democratic politicians there] don't seem to have a fire in them.' Trump, she argued, was taking a risk to try to help California out of a lawlessness created by the cowardice of its local politicians. This was a common sentiment. A group of women from Pennsylvania were sitting on the grass. One wore a red-white-and-blue blouse, the other a flag-printed dress. 'Trump wants to keep us safe,' she said. 'He's not Hitler.' 'Or a king!' one of her friends said. She defended Trump's decision to ban transgender troops from the military, and complained that Biden had subjected the military to political correctness and DEI initiatives. 'The military is not a social experiment.' A little over an hour into the parade, which was still going strong, the crowd was beginning to show some signs of restlessness. Even a few people in Maga hats appeared to be packing up their things and heading home. The first wave of hundreds of people slowly funneled through the gates, and past entrepreneurs hawking Maga gear and baseball caps with Ice written on them. A young man, asked what he thought of the parade, remarked that he was not impressed. He felt that Trump's close association with the celebration had politicized it and 'made a mockery' of the army, though it wasn't the army's fault. More to the point, he added, the event was 'just kind of … lame'.
The Guardian
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Traffic jams and tanks: Washington DC braces for Trump's military parade
The people of Washington DC have seen unusual traffic on Rhode Island Avenue this week: flatbed trucks, escorted by police and laden with military tanks traversing the thoroughfare that connects the city's suburbs with downtown. The convoys have left traffic jams in their wake, and even more disruptions are to come for the capital city. Thousands of soldiers accompanied by armored vehicles, aircraft, horses and even a couple of mules are set to parade down the National Mall to mark the army's 250th anniversary on Saturday – which also happens to be the day Donald Trump turns 79. 'I think it's time for us to celebrate a little bit. You know, we've had a lot of victories,' the president said earlier this week. 'It is my birthday, but I'm not celebrating my birthday,' he acknowledged, instead pointing to the Flag Day holiday that also takes place on Saturday. The more than 700,000 residents of the nation's capital are used to seeing their monuments and streets commandeered by politicians, including Trump, who convened thousands of people on the White House ellipse on January 6 in 2021, some of whom went on to attack the Capitol. The military parade is scheduled to last only a handful of hours, but busy roads nearby will be closed for up to four days, and Ronald Reagan Washington National airport will suspend flights for an unspecified amount of time during the event. Parading dozens of M1A2 Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles down city streets built to carry vehicles a little more than half their weight may also leave the city with hefty repair bills to deal with. The parade has also made Washington DC the second US city to which Trump has deployed soldiers, albeit for very different reasons. In recent days, he has ordered federalized California national guard troops and US marines on to the streets of Los Angeles over the objections of state and city leaders, saying their presence is necessary to allow immigration authorities to arrest undocumented people. The deployment has sparked fears he plans to regularly use the military against his domestic enemies. The spectacle in Washington DC will be the first military parade since 1991, when George HW Bush greeted troops after the Gulf war. According to the army, the parade will proceed for eight blocks down Constitution Avenue Northwest, beginning at the Lincoln Memorial and ending just past the White House. Any protesters, Trump has warned: 'will be met with very heavy force'. Washington DC is overwhelmingly Democratic, and the federal district's non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has blasted the event as 'a performative military parade in the style of authoritarian leaders' that 'will not serve any legitimate purpose'. Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor who appears to have a cordial relationship with Trump, has avoided similar criticism, instead emphasizing her administration's preparations to handle crowds that the Secret Service estimates could climb into the hundreds of thousands. 'There's going to be a parade aspect, but don't lose sight of the fact that a lot of people served in the army. A lot of families, a lot of people are into aircraft and other equipment,' she told reporters last month. As for the potential of tanks tearing up city streets, Bowser said: 'I remain concerned about it, I have to tell you. These are, for the most part, local streets, and if they're rendered unusable, we have to make them usable and then go seek our money from the feds.' A city spokesman declined further comment. An army spokesperson, Heather J Hagan, said the entire parade would cost between $25m and $45m. While the army anticipates 'minimal damage to roads', she said tanks would be fitted with rubber pads and one-inch thick steel plates will be placed 'strategically' on the route 'as a precautionary measure'. She declined to comment on who would pay for damages to city infrastructure. Advisory neighborhood commissioners, who are elected to represent chunks of Washington DC's eight wards, have been comparatively outspoken against the event. This week, commissioners representing part of Capitol Hill approved a resolution calling military parades 'more typical of authoritarian governments than of democracies' and urging its cancellation. Jim Malec, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who represents part of the Foggy Bottom neighborhood near the parade route, said its preparations have already created 'significant disruptions', and noted the procession will take place not far from where the city cleared homeless encampments at Trump's urging earlier this year. 'I think it's appalling that we're spending $45m on a parade after kicking out, from that same area, the people who are the most vulnerable residents of our neighborhood,' he said. Washington DC has repeatedly been knocked by Trump and his Republican allies since he returned to the White House. His campaign to thin the ranks of federal workers by coaxing them to resign or outright firing them has prompted concerns about an economic downturn in the city and surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Meanwhile, Republican majorities in Congress have set about meddling in the federal district's affairs, which is allowed by the law. This week, the House passed bills to stop noncitizens from voting in local elections, undo a prohibition on the police union bargaining over disciplinary matters, and prevent its administration from not cooperating with immigration authorities. The chamber's leaders also have yet to schedule a vote on legislation to undo a $1bn cut to the city's budget they made earlier this year. Samuel Port, a former army logistics officer living in a Maryland suburb adjacent to the capital who recently lost his contracting job when the Trump administration moved to close the US Agency for International Development (USAID) , said his experience with tanks leaves him in no doubt that they will tear up roads on their drive through the city. And their engines, he predicted, will make anyone who comes near them unpleasantly hot on a day where the National Weather Service predicts a high of 88F (31C) , in addition to spewing plenty of pollution into the air. 'I do think it's important and necessary to celebrate important things involving the history of the military and veterans in general,' Port said. 'Trump is using this as an excuse to benefit and to prop up himself up for his birthday. And by doing that he not only politicizes the military in that way to support him and his ego, but also it really demeans the soldiers as well, because it's using them as a political prop.'
