Overview

Trump's Military Parade refers to the controversy surrounding an order from President Donald Trump to the Pentagon to plan a parade celebrating American military might later in 2018. The order proved controversial as critics noted that such a display is highly unusual in America and would come at tremendous cost.

Background

On February 6th, 2018, The Washington Post^[1] reported that the Pentagon had received orders from President Trump to plan a military parade for later in 2018. While the location and date are yet to be decided upon, the article notes it would likely be tied into "a patriotic holiday" and a potential route would be Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., linking the Capitol Building and The White House. Trump was inspired by a similar parade in France on Bastille Day, which he attended with French president Emmanuel Macron. Two months after attending the Bastille Day Parade, Trump told reporters "It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen. It was two hours on the button, and it was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France." He later added, “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

Developments

After The Washington Post reported the story, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that The White House and Pentagon were exploring ways to turn the parade into a reality. However, the Post also noted that shipping military equipment to Washington would be expensive, potentially costing millions of dollars, and it was unclear how it would be paid for. The hefty price was a point of criticism for Democrats who opposed the parade. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic minority whip, called the parade a "fantastic waste of money to amuse the president" on MSNBC the following morning.^[2] Durbin and Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii both argued the money spent on a parade would be better spent investing in services for troops at home and abroad. Durbin argued:

"Let's put money into the quality of life and military families who sacrifice with our men and women in uniform. And finally, let's make sure that we're doing something to stop the waiting lines in veteran's hospitals. That's a good way to put money, taxpayers' money -- investing in our troops, investing in our veterans instead of the amusement of the president."

Schatz tweeted alternative uses for the parade funds (shown below).

Meanwhile, Twitter users expressed that military parades were more common in countries run by dictators, such as North Korea. Many expressed a commonality between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's attitudes and Trump's desire for a military parade. The Daily Show ran a segment in which they compared a North Korean news announcement about a parade by Kim Jong Un with how Fox News covered the announcement (shown below).

The Guardian opined that Trump's desire for a military parade revealed him to be a "would-be despot."^[3] This opinion was shared by several Twitter users. Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas included the parade in a list of Trump behaviors which are comparable to despotic leaders, gaining over 1,600 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter user @JonAndreasan posted a tweet of Trump super-imposed on a Soviet Union march, sarcastically referring to Trump as "Dear Leader," a term used by subjects of a dictator (shown below, right). Tweets of this sort were compiled by Huffington Post.^[4]

Several popular posts on Reddit mocked the idea. An image macro in /r/politicalhumor^[5] gained over 17,000 upvotes (shown below, left). A GIF of John McCain meant to symbolize the poster's reaction to the news posted to /r/reactiongifs gained over 12,000 upvotes (shown below, right).

Cancellation

On August 16th, 2018, the Department of Defense reported that the military parade would cost an estimated $92 million, $80 million more than previous estimates. The Pentagon announced that this would be pushing the parade until at least 2019.^[6] A spokesperson said, "The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America's military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I. We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019."^[7]

On August 16th, Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer reported that the delay would upset believers of the unsubstantiated Qanon conspiracy theory. He tweeted,^[10] "The delay of Trump's military parade is a letdown for QAnon believers, who had become convinced that the parade would mark a celebration of Trump arresting the global pedophile cabal[…]The delay of Trump's military parade is a letdown for QAnon believers, who had become convinced that the parade would mark a celebration of Trump arresting the global pedophile cabal[…]QAnon people expected all the Democrats / deep-staters to be chained and paraded at the Nov. 11 event like defeated Gauls in ancient Rome. Instead…"

The following day, on August 17th, Trump accounced that he would be canceling the parade. He said in a series of tweets, "The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…….attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" The posts (shown below) received more than 20,000 retweets and 90,000 likes in less than 24 hours.^[8][9]

Search Interest

External References