The birthday tank parade of President Donald Trump, who costs taxpayers an estimated $ 45 million, was a relatively moderate affair – especially given the hefty price tag.
The Parade was forced to start early, with events that start about 30 minutes earlier than planned, in an attempt to beat the storm forecast for Saturday evening. While only light rain fell on the parade, the drizzling forecast could have been a reason why so many people stayed at home, which resulted in a muted crowd for Trump’s big, beautiful birthday extravaganza.
While television cameras at the event were largely trained on the soldiers, tanks, planes and other military vehicles while making their way to the Constitution Avenue, images on social media show empty grandstands, scarce crowds and almost silence because of the lack of speakers along the parader route. A New York Times The reporter present said about the crowd: “The energy level on the military parade here is a bit of desultorium. The crowd is calm and light, a bit suppressed after waiting in the oppressive DC humidity for hours to reach this point.”
The energy on stage did not seem to be much better, with commentators on social media who emphasize images of State Secretary Marco Rubio Geeuwend and apparently have a difficult time “Hide his boredom.”
Others, including an Irish newspaper, noticed that Melania Trump, who was present next to her husband, looked like she fell asleep on different points, while cameras caught her closed with her eyes closed and seemed to get rid of.
It was not only Trump’s supporters who did not come into mass songs for his birthday parade; Several of his own family members were not present, including daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.
Those who were present were vice -president JD Vance, his wife and their two children, Minister of Defense Pete Hegseeth, UFC CEO Dana White and Trump’s Staff Chef Susie Wiles, as well as various high military officials. UFC was one of the sponsors of the parade, next to Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, Oracle, a software company and Lockheed Martin. We learned this because their names were shouted by the parade emcee as the parade progressed.
The parade arrived late in the day and followed more than 2,000 “no kings” protests throughout the country plan to coincide with Trump’s birthday. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US participated in these protests. Although the number of participants is difficult to estimate, the New York City police estimated a crowd of around 50,000, while an estimated 80,000 protesters marched in Philadelphia.
Protesters were also present at the Parade; The New York Times Reported that a group had gathered in a place near the Paradezone, with people with signs with the text: “Stop fascists now!” and “Army, do your job – 86 47.”
The Parade of Trump, was planning to coincide with his birthday, but apparently designed to celebrate the 250 -year anniversary of the US Army, made significant criticism in the weeks prior to the event as a result of the enormous costs for taxpayers and concerns of DC functionaries about the potential damage that the tanks could do to city strips.
