Trump's military show of force in LA and DC camouflage his failing presidency | Opinion
President Trump has a long history of disrespecting the U.S. military. This parade just adds to that truth.
- President Trump's military deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, are seen as displays of dominance and distractions from his struggling agenda.
- The deployments are costly, with the Los Angeles deployment estimated at $134 million and the DC parade at $45 million, amid criticism of their necessity and potential damage.
- Trump's threats of 'heavy force' against protesters at the DC parade raise concerns, given his history of inciting violence and admiration for authoritarian leaders.
- A poll shows widespread public opposition to the cost of the D.C. parade, with 75% of Americans disapproving.
President Donald Trump's twin military spectacles – one already underway in Los Angeles, the other set for June 14 on the streets of Washington, DC – are deployments attempting to demonstrate dominance over his critics while also serving as distractions from his flailing agenda.
Trump has failed in his promise to deport millions of undocumented people, and his One Big Beautiful Bill Act is going bust as his own Republican allies battle about the budget and how it will swell our nation's deficit.
This poorly camouflaged study, in contrast, shows us that any self-styled strongman who feels compelled to fill the streets with soldiers and tanks is really just revealing how very weak he really is.
Trump's big birthday parade is going to cost taxpayers millions
Trump is wasting an estimated $134 million to send 4,000 National Guard members and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles, where local leaders and law enforcement have competently made the case that the deployment is unnecessary, because they've got a handle on the protests that the president's deport-them-all policy has provoked.
Trump is blowing at least an additional $45 million – really, who thinks this nonsense will come in on budget? – for a June 14 military parade, which by no coincidence at all is also his 79th birthday.
This ostentatious boondoggle in the nation's capital is something Trump has been craving since the first year of his first term, eight years ago.
Trump craves control and needs you to see it. So see this for what it really is.
He doesn't care about apt analogies, but you might, since you're paying for them. The U.S. Army estimates that tanks in the parade may cause about $16 million in damage to Washington's streets – an all-too-perfect example of how Trump is willfully trashing our government and melts down in tantrums when anyone gets in his way.
A petulant president gets what he wants on his birthday. And he'll happily turn that military against his critics if they complain.
Trump threatens 'heavy force' against protesters because he's so tough
The Washington parade hasn't even started, and Trump and his staff are already struggling to stay on the same page.
Trump, speaking at the White House on June 10, warned that any protesters at his parade "will be met with very heavy force." That was in response to a question about protests that made no mention of violence. But Trump doesn't care that our Constitution guarantees the right to protest our government.
That raises more questions. Karoline Leavitt, Trump's press secretary, called it a "stupid question" a day later when a journalist asked if peaceful protests would be allowed during the parade. That's one of Trump's top talking heads telling us it's stupid to take him at his word.
But we have to ask, right?
Trump has a well-documented history of inciting violence when he thinks he might benefit from it. He doesn't just use violence as a tool. He's a longtime fan, having praised the Chinese government during an interview 35 years ago for showing "the power of strength" after massacring at least 300 people during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest.
This is the true source of Trump's strongman envy. He wants unchecked power to do whatever he wants, just like the many dictators around the planet that he so openly admires.
Trump has a history of disrespecting the military. The parade will just be the latest example.
You know who Trump doesn't admire? That would be people who actually serve in the military.
His transmogrification of the Republican Party's respect for military service tracks back to his first run for president, where his five draft deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War were shrugged off by the party's voters.
They didn't care when the family of the podiatrist who diagnosed him with "bone spurs" in one of those deferments went public in 2018 to say that was a favor for Trump's dad, who happened to be the doctor's landlord.
He mocked John McCain, the late U.S. senator from Arizona and former Republican nominee for president, in 2015 for being shot down as a U.S. Navy aviator in Vietnam.
And, most notoriously, Trump derided members of the U.S. military who died in action as "losers" and "suckers" while speaking in his first presidential term to his chief of staff John Kelly, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general whose son died in combat in 2010.
Trump has denied that, but Kelly in 2023 confirmed Trump's comments to CNN.
Who do you want to believe here, the notorious draft dodger or a Gold Star dad who spent a life in service to his country and lost a son on the battlefield in Afghanistan?
Maybe America has already decided about all this. The Public Religion Research Institute, in a poll released June 10, found that 3 out of 4 Americans oppose spending $45 million on Trump's parade.
That included 52% of Republicans, 93% of Democrats and 80% of independents.
Don't expect Trump to care about that, either. He'll declare victory, no matter what happens next. Stay focused on the money you pay in taxes so he can play strongman with a military he can't respect. This is a trial run. He wants the role for real. And he knows we can stop him.
Follow Paste BN columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.