Trump Plans $92 Million Military Parade—Honoring Himself | Donald Trump is pulling straight from the dictator’s playbook.
Summary
Trump is planning a $92 million military parade on June 14, 2025—his 79th birthday, Flag Day, and the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary.
The four-mile event, from the Pentagon to the White House, revives a long-desired spectacle Trump previously canceled in 2018 over costs.
He has since overhauled military leadership, removing top Pentagon officials and replacing them with loyalists likely to support the parade.
D.C. officials, facing pressure from Trump’s federal overreach, have shown little resistance. Critics call it a vanity project amid broader concerns about authoritarian tendencies.
https://newrepublic.com/post/193674/trump-military-parade-birthdayOpen linkView original on lemmy.world577
Comments84
I'm 100% convinced DOGE will stop this as it is not very efficient use of tax money.
They'll spin it as necessary and patriotic to lift the spirits of the American people, or some bullshit like that.
I stand with DOGE in this pursuit
Sorry but DOGE only gets involved when the government uses tax payer money to feed starving children or help keep old people from ending up on the street.
Just like the millions in taxpayer money that has to be spent keeping Agent Orange safe when he goes golfing... at his own resorts, funneling the money to himself.
Sounds like a great time to do massive civil disobedience.
I'm pretty sure the DC cops wouldn't be inclined to step in if a few hundred thousand folks decided to block the parade route.
Maybe you even get someone ran over by a tank. Hmm, that sounds familiar.
I know you're being sarcastic, but I'd point out that it wouldn't be the military handling crowd control; it would be the DC police.
DC and Trump have a long and unhappy history.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/08/washington-dc-push-back-gop-attacks/82789086007/
First article in search.
I'm pretty sure the cops would decide that they didn't want to interfere with a legitimate protest.
Depends. Trump is still trying to bring DC police under DHS control.
ACAB.
They would likely just use sonic weapons to disperse the crowds. People would trample eachother to death trying to flee and he'd just bitch about how inconsiderate all those protestors were.
I wonder what's worse for Trump: a riot on his parade or nobody showing up.
First, Trump can't do anything wrong. If nobody shows up he'd tell himself they were all home watching on TV and if there's a riot he'll say that Soros paid for it.
Second, even if ACAB the DC police have a vested interest in their own city. They'd put making Trump look bad ahead of anything else.
Good luck
We could keep another thousand or so federal employees employed for the next year for that, but yeah let’s waste that money for a non-milestone birthday year for an asshole instead.
Oh man, if we could fuck up his birthday party I would be so happy.
30 people along the route of the parade cracking tear gas grenades at the same time would be lovey to see.
This is clearly not worse than J6 and those people are heroes now.
Yes, but I don't want to see what the SS will do to people deploying "weapons" near enough to the president.
Where's DOGE on this waste and abuse?
Can't have a parade if doge fires the entire military!!!
I should stop paying taxes
I'm working on having all my jobs convert me to 1099 (some have) and then I'm just going to see how long I can go without paying.
Probably not as long as I'd like, but whatever.
I'm kind of in the same boat. At this point I want to set the federal tax money aside in a high yield savings and then just not pay taxes. I mean, what's the fine\penalty rate that they charge? If it's nominal then you may actually make money in the long run by withholding taxes, then negotiating lower rates later
I'm not financial expert but when the stock market is crashing, the high yield savings decrease their value over time
Also, in my country, if you withhold taxes you need to pay a fine, the interest rate and the full owed amount, unless you had a professional accountant expert in tax elusion.
Those discounted rates are reserved for who stole millions, not for regular people
I owe taxes from the past and got on a payment plan. I will be paying it for the next 5ish years.
Yes, there's insignificant interest related to it (it's sub 2%). But ultimately I am slow rolling what I owe and they're getting devalued money later.
Sometimes I just don't pay and they don't seem to notice for months and then they send me a notice about it, so I call and make up a story and they forgive the fees.
Look, I am not opposed to taxes. I'm not opposed to the greater good. I donate plenty to local charities and causes. But this administration can fuck right off.
They can't arrest all of us.
So, 3 months in office and we’re already going to waste over $120m for this fucking cunt to play golf on the job and stroke his ego with a military parade? At least they could fire 2,400 people in an unimportant place like the CDC to offset the costs for things that truly make America great. /s
Heil Myself (Springtime for Hitler - Part Two) - The Producers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRlKIO3KE3g
I literally just heard of this movie for the first time in my life last night and then I o see this
It’s brilliant. Skip the original straight movie and watch the movie based on the musical with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.
What is this blasphemy? Skip the Gene Wilder & Zero Mostel movie??
It drags. Even Mel said he didn’t like it. The Broadway musical was what he said it was really meant to be.
Wow, America, you've really let an old failure of a person -and Russian asset- turn your country into a dictatorship without as much as a whimper.
Who knew it would be so easy to do it that a failed reality TV star could do it?
It's hilarious, yet shockingly sad, to see this in real time.
I mean, yeah, if it was an evil genius then I could see how it could happen, but to a conman like tRUMP? Christ.
It was kind of planned. They kept making people more and more stupid thinking it will make them easier to control. What they didn't expect is that people will get so stupid they will stop listening to them and choose other idiot instead.
Social media and News brainrot did all the heavy lifting for the last 10 years.
I guess the soldiers will like to prepare, train and do the parade for a draft doger.
Who also hates them
They'll have no choice, the "suckers" and "losers".
Sounds like a great opportunity for a massive protest.
The secret service has got to be losing their fucking minds over this. There is literally no way such an event would end well and it's just not practical to secure such a thing.
Wouldn't it be hysterical if Trump's ego was what ended all this?
If he goes anywhere near a book repository in Texas, he's fucked.
https://www.growupart.com/product/the-turd-reich
So if all of the military is focusing their effort on this stupid expensive bullshit, what's the most disruptive thing a group of well organized people could do?
Organize a crowd to stand in front of the tanks.
Paint the route in pride colours the night before
even better, paint a line off the road and to a cliff ala Wile Coyote and see if he's dumb enough to follow it.
Boycott the event and protest 4 miles away. Imagine his face when nobody turns up haha
Bomb pearl harbor? No one would expect it
Anyone in the military that goes along with this should be removed for treason
I think this
charadeparade is both a play to his MAGA base and a sort of loyalty test to see who in the military goes along with him.I wonder if the military are practicing the goose step
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag
4 mile stretch. I hope they run out of people the first mile and they have to run to get in front of the parade to make it look like it's full. I hope an eagle shits right on his head too.
I guess he’s lucky eggs aren’t affordable. Otherwise people might stock up on them for this occasion.
Putin will be riding in the lead tank with trump.
Doubt the leader of the US would share the spot with trump...
Had me in the first half
Excellent!
So how do veterans feel about this? Lousy ass draft dodger Private Bonespurs forcing the military to prance around in his honor?
Who does he think will attend this parade?
Seems like a great opportunity for an actual televised protest. Line the parade route with opposition
I'd rather paint the road stripe off a nearby cliff. Are there cliffs there?
magattes
Will he get to wear a giant hat? He should also have a fake military outfit with more medals than anyone.
🤮
What does the efficiency experts say about this spending? Seems a bit of a waste of cash. I mean if we have to fire thousands of people because they cost too much....then why waste it here. We don't need this, we don't need him.
I'd say we should throw rotten eggs and tomatoes, but we won't be able to afford that.
It'd be an awful shame if a nuclear bomb went off during the parade. The news the next day would probably read: Nuke in downtown DC, nothing of value lost.
For clarity: I despise everything about Trump.
But celebrating the 250th anniversary of the army is a logical thing to do. Most countries around the world, even democracies, would do that. Look at for example the parades in France.
The thing Trump is doing wrong in this scenario is that he makes it about him. He is having a parade for his birthday, not the 250th birthday of the army. Fucking narcissist.
I'm really angry about this. A lot of soldiers have suffered and died protecting us, he's NEVER done that. How dare he slap veterans in the face like that?
But he had to overcome Bone spurs
Soldiers who suffered and died to protect us from literally this.
Ha! True.
The US has never celebrated any anniversary of any military branch with a public Soviet-era parade like this. And I assume there will be no marines and no aircraft, since their anniversary does not overlap with the army.
Let's not sanewash this.
Definitely going. It's gonna be the hugest, best parade ever, like no one's ever seen. Spectacular.
Don't really have a problem with a $92,000,000 parade so much as I have a problem with the 1,000,000,000,000 military budget.
Edit: It appears I have offended the libs by trying to bring it back to a larger systemic issue rather than freaking out over aesthetics. My apologies.
You know only tinpot dictators have military parades for themselves, right? Normal leaders don't do that. Normal democracies don't do that.
Oh, I just noticed your instance. Carry on, comrade.
Are we acting like this is the first time the US has had a military parade in history for some reason? Pretty much every country has military parades. If "only tinpot dictators have military parades," then name a country that isn't a tinpot dictatorship.
Yeah I'm not getting into a discussion with you. I clearly said "for themselves*.
Have a good day.
Sounds like a very important distinction to you, for some reason.
It is a very important distinction. I can't even imagine the prime minister of my home country insisting on a military parade for his birthday. He'd be laughed out of parliament, because it's fucking ridiculous.
Having a parade as part of some event, for an anniversary or something, that's one thing. But this is Trump wanting one for his own personal glory. That's actually something only dictators do. Kim Jong Un loves parades. Hitler loved parades. Mussolini loved parades.
I guess maybe it's not so weird that Trump wants one too, considering who he wants to emulate.
It's not even a real distinction because it's also the Army's 250th anniversary.
Even if that wasn't the case, it's a totally meaningless and purely aesthetic distinction. "Oh this kinda has the vibe of something bad people do," that's the only real objection to it that any of you have.
The legitimate reason to care is because it's glamourizing the US military, which is an incredibly evil institution. Even so, of the things the military does, a parade is one of the most innocent and innoculous. But between glamorizing a shitty president or a shitty institution, why should anyone give a shit?
Insane that there's people in this thread being like, "I should stop paying taxes." Really, this is where you draw the line? Hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered in illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but Bush never had a parade to celebrate himself so I guess it's fine! I'll never understand liberals' priorities.
Yeah, you know, I'm not actually American and I don't pay homage to any army. And I hope you didn't truly conclude from my post that this parade bullshit is the only thing I dislike about Trump, or that due to a lack thereof somehow I approved of Bush? Come on, even you know that's just a poor straw man.
That said, I don't disagree at all with the other stuff you're saying, you are absolutely right. I'm just telling you that no normal (and by normal, I don't necessarily mean good!) leader (i.e. one who is not a megalomaniac, a narcissist or a (wannabe) dictator) would demand a military parade for their birthday. Honestly not. And even if you don't care because it's "symbolic," you should still care because it shows you the type of person he is. The fact that it's "also the army's 250th birthday" is irrelevant, because it's irrelevant to Trump. HE wants a birthday parade for HIS birthday. He thinks he deserves it. He thinks his birthday is worth a 100 million dollars and he doesn't give a fuck that the tax payers are footing the bill.
Trump sees himself as the institution. That's the whole point. The U.S., that's him. The government, it's him. L'État, c'est moi.
Now if it were me I'd abolish military parades completely, because imo it's just a waste of money. But the fact that Trump wants one for himself is just another page out of his Dictator handbook.