On June 14, Donald Trump will finally get his wish—a military parade to call his own. Trump will puff his chest, stick out what old age has left of his chin, and wave pompously at his little display of political theater. This spectacle will include 6,500 soldiers, 150 military vehicles, and 50 helicopters, not to mention hundreds of police and city maintenance workers taking overtime pay to provide support.
The DOGE President’s pageant is projected to cost taxpayers $45 million (though the final cost will likely be much more). This coming from the guy whose ketamine-cooked collaborator, Elon Musk, wiped out funding for veterans’ health care, ranging from cancer treatment to mental health therapy. The working class troops won’t see a dime of this $45 million, but instead will be eating freeze dried Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and sleeping on cots at a nearby Air Force base. The cost of Making America Great Again one parade at a time could provide millions of meals for the millions of children who go hungry in the United States. Meanwhile, Trump’s proposed “Big Billionaire Bill” would slash Medicaid and renewable energy resources. But Trump wants a parade!
Strongmen Love A Parade
The June 14 parade date carries deep nationalist significance, from Flag Day to the marking of the 250 year anniversary of the establishment of the US Army. It also happens to be Trump’s 79th birthday, conveniently fusing nationalism with his cult of personality.
Trump’s strongman style politics run counter to capitalist democratic norms. ‘Western’ democracies typically include “civilian control” over the military which is meant to maintain a semblance of political independence. But Trump wants to use the military as a personal extension of executive power. Authoritarians use military parades as a show of force, meant to intimidate foreign rivals and domestic opponents. The latter is on full display in Los Angeles, where Trump has more troops than are currently deployed in Iraq in an attempt to crush anti-ICE protests.
Contrast this with the January 6 riot, when Trump refused to call out the National Guard while his supporters attempted to take over the US Capitol building.
There are several more examples of Trump’s meddling with the armed forces to achieve political ends. He ordered the renaming of U.S.S. Harvey Milk, named after the famous gay rights activist, as a direct provocation during Pride month. The provocations continued with the firing of 6 high-ranking military officials as a statement against DEI. Trump has also banned trans people from serving openly in the military. These are stark attempts to manipulate the military on the basis of “culture war” issues for the purpose of divide and rule tactics.
Further blurring the lines between the military and personal power, Trump gave a pre-parade campaign-style speech to Fort Bragg soldiers carefully selected on the basis of political allegiance. However, a majority of veterans see through the charade, with 70% against the parade.
Inter-Imperialist Conflict
The last military parade in Washington DC was in 1991, to mark the end of the Gulf War. Today Trump’s trade war is meant to damage the export-dependent Chinese economy while accelerating the decoupling of the two superpowers. Historically, hot war follows trade war. Trump’s parade points to the beginning of preparations for future war with China.
Getting everyday Americans to accept the potentially catastrophic effects of a “multi-theater” war with China and its allies will take a concerted effort on the part of capitalist institutions. And the ruling class knows that US imperialism has its work cut out for it. The bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy states, “A separate poll showed that only 38 percent of respondents said that patriotism was very important to them, down from 70 percent in 1998.”
Meanwhile, Army, Navy, and Air Force recruitment numbers have been falling for years. While the Democrats would use a different approach than Trump’s strongman methods, working-class people should expect the entire US political establishment to stoke nationalism, patriotism, and Chinese fear-mongering for the foreseeable future.
“No Kings” Protests
Indivisible and 50501 have correctly called for nationwide protests on June 14. Mass protests will be a crucial part of shutting down Trump 2.0, but any sustained movement will also need a bold, clear program of demands that working people are motivated to fight for, and a strategy to win them. Such a program should both demand an end to ICE raids and all deportations, as well as an end to all imperialist war. We should call for drastically cutting the bloated U.S. military and border defense budgets and redirecting that money toward free universal healthcare, public education, and high-quality affordable housing for all. Ultimately, such a movement will require a socialist program based in international working-class solidarity as an antidote to Trump’s divide and rule efforts to strengthen nationalism.