Pointless Spectacle: A Veteran’s Take on Trump’s Military Parade

Spectators line State Street as military units, marching bands, and community organizations proceed through downtown Chicago during the city’s annual Memorial Day Parade on May 25, 2025. The event honors service members who gave their lives in defense of the nation. (US Army photo by 2nd Lt. Trenton Fouche, Joint Force Headquarters — Illinois National Guard) Public domain.

In a city better known for gridlock than armor columns, 28 M1 Abrams tanks are about to rumble down Constitution Avenue.

Why? Because President Donald Trump finally got his parade.

It’s been eight years since Trump first floated the idea after attending France’s Bastille Day celebration. Back then, critics laughed it off as a vanity project. But on June 14, 2025, coincidentally Trump’s 79th birthday and the US Army’s 250th, the laughter will be drowned out by the roar of jet engines, artillery salutes, and track-squealing armor.

The Parade That Almost Wasn’t

To understand the full spectacle rolling into Washington this June, you have to rewind to 2017. That’s when then-President Donald Trump, fresh off his first Bastille Day celebration in Paris, turned to French President Emmanuel Macron and essentially said, “I want one.”

The French tanks, the jets, the goose-stepping pageantry, it all struck a chord. The problem? America doesn’t really do military parades. Not like that.

Back home, the Pentagon scrambled to interpret the presidential wish into something actionable, while also trying not to look like a banana republic.