Washington, DC – The big anniversary parade of Trump president was met by demonstrations and scenes from the national capital that showed how the country has become divided during its second term.
The event on Saturday – which came with an estimated cost of $ 25 million to $ 45 million – was mired in controversy before its start, with concerns concerning tanks that damage the streets around the National Mall and polls showing almost two thirds of American adults did not approve of public funds on the show. It also took place in the context of the demonstrations against the mass expulsion of Trump in California, which were encountered by arrests and an often violent response of a mixture of application of local law and federal forces, including ice and the army.
While the United States has already organized military parades following victories on the battlefield, this Mars was undoubtedly about Trump. The president has been pressure for a military parade since the start of his first mandate after being impressed by a celebration of Bastille he saw in France. The events on Saturday were presented as honoring the 250th anniversary of the American army, but they also coincided with Trump’s 79th anniversary.
Trump and other officials watched the procession of soldiers and armored vehicles from a revision stand, but many people on the ground in Washington have not witnessed any strength emissions. Instead, they were entitled to lively demonstrations of tensions inspired by Trump’s administration.
Despite a clear threat of violence of the repression of the west coast and comments from Trump last week that any protest to its parade would be “encountered with very heavy force”, hundreds of demonstrators turned out to DC across the country, millions of activists have at the Trump event with a massive wave on a national rallies and marches on a national scale. However, the organizers of this group specifically avoided the national capital because of what they described as a potential for “conflict” with thousands of troops in the city.
But the absence of a wider organized event did not prevent certain demonstrators, who estimated that it was crucial to make a direct position against the president. While there were anti-Trump activists dispersed in Washington on Saturday, the largest demonstration was a walk in the Logan Circle district at Parc Lafayette, which is just outside the White House.
“It’s the only place to be!” A speaker said by a megaphone. “Just in front of the White House! As much as they let us go.”
The demonstration site is important in the recent history of Washington. During Trump’s first term, Lafayette Park and the surrounding streets were the center of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations which broke out after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Trump met these crowds with tear gas, the national guard and a range of application of federal law in the last months of the president’s first mandate. Since Trump resumed his duties earlier this year, the Congress Republicans have literally prompted to erase part of this story and have pressed DC to paint the wall which once marked the area outside the park as “Black Lives Match Plaza”.
On Saturday, a black safety fence which was installed before the parade kept the crowd out of the half of the park closest to the White House. The panels and speakers have addressed a myriad of problems, including concerns about ice, war in Gaza and Trump’s drastic cuts in federal agencies. The main organizer of walking and rally in the park was a group called “refusing fascism”. Their signaling called for the eviction of Trump and assimilated his event to a dictatorial show. He included signs that said “Trump has to go now” and “no to Trump’s fascist military parade”.
Although the view from the ground at Washington DC on Saturday showed the vehement opposition to Trump, there were also signs of the support he enjoys. In Lafayette Park, some Trump fans and right -wing activists clashed with the demonstrators. This included livestrers wishing to engage in the debate with trained and digital fishing which has become a decisive characteristic of our political moment. Florida’s right radio host who has become the candidate for Congress Mark Kaye patrolled the park engaged in arguments while her phone camera was riding. Another man has exercised a puppet named Edgar who has more than 80,000 subscribers on a YouTube page featuring his mocking interactions with the Liberals and the Merch which joyfully embraces the term “fascist”.
“How does the West West?” Patriotic man or buttersoft slut? Edgar and her puppeteer asked.
After more than an hour in Lafayette Park, the demonstrators returned to Logan Circle. On the way, an English-Western Virginia English teacher named Emily Ziebarth spoke to TPM and recognized the threat of violence that struggled on the event.
“I … I have gone – I can’t even count how many demonstrations since January – and I take my child, generally. And something that has changed for me this week is that I decided not to bring my child, but I decided that I had to go to the country’s capital because they are literally our streets,” said Ziebarth. “Being informed that we cannot come to exercise the law that we have literally made a country is madness.”
Ziebarth said she planned to stay in Washington throughout the day to “be everywhere I could have my voice and my body online for our country”.
“I respect people and organizations who want to ensure the safety of people, but it is preventively and, I think, if you simply say to the person you are protesting that you will do what they say immediately when they threaten something, they will continue to go stronger,” said Ziebarth. “So there is nowhere else that I would have been today.”
While the crowd of walkers were approaching Logan Circle, they chanted “the hands of the!” And music has pressure, including the anti -fascist hymn “Bella Ciao”. A man who gave his name was Osi said he had come to DC of Maryland – who organized “no kings” demonstrations – because fascism “wins when everyone is silent and subjected to their tactics of fear”.
“I entered the district because this is where the seat of power is. I think that in the end,” no kings “is not right not to have a great presence here. It could end up violent, but at the end of the day, Trump is back there. He is in the White House,” said Osi, pointing in the street. “Being elsewhere except where Trump is and where his military parade will not be as effective because he can ignore us there. Here, he cannot ignore ourselves – we are there in front of his door.”
The crowd was widely dispersed after arriving at Logan Circle. Volunteers dressed in neon acts have gone around and warned people that the event for the event was to expire. They also encouraged the demonstrators to go into groups.
“We don’t know what Maga could hide,” said a man.
In the end, despite the disturbing connotations, the day remained non -violent. Sunday morning, a spokesperson for Washington Metropolitan Police Department told TPM that “zero arrests had been carried out” in collaboration with the parade and the associated demonstrations. In Logan Circle, some of the demonstrators were obviously satisfied with the lack of conflict generated by the event in a city that others had avoided.
“We are so peaceful!” A man shouted as the crowd dispersed. “Give yourself applause, people!”
Later in the afternoon, the main threat seemed to be a violent time. However, despite the warnings of the flash floods and the thick electric sky, no storm decreases.
Although there were no weather interruptions, for some of the Trump supporters and soldiers who sought to join the crowd in the shopping center and see the procession, the event was actually canceled.
Despite crowds obviously sparse for the parade, more than an hour before the scheduled start time, several entries in the secure area along the route were closed. Crowds, many of whom strewn with Merch Trump, wandered for more than a mile along the black safety fence in the city center in search of a path.
“They closed the entrance,” a woman told a man who found himself at the locked doors of the parade. “You have to go down to the 14th.”
“You are kidding,” he said, shaking his head.
“Take advantage of the parade of your dictator!” shouted another protester.
While the police and the military led the crowd to certain entries, they were also closed. The situation left hundreds of potential participants who have undertaken overviews of tanks, planes and paratroopers behind a safety fence. A man dressed in a camo named Joe described himself as a supporter of Trump and the army who had led more than ten hours of the Alabama to see the parade.
“We haven’t seen much,” said Joe.
While the people leaving the parade mixed with those who could not see it, they engaged in verbal clashes with the demonstrators who also unleashes themselves outside the fence.
“Save America! Fuck Trump!” Cried a group of young men who walked together in a circle.
“There are children!” Shut up!” Yelled a woman who had two children spend in red hats from Maga far from the parade.
Everyone in Washington could not see the military show, but they all had the chance to see the depths of the division in the country.
A man named Patrick, who said he came from San Diego, pouring out the parade out of a Trump visor with simulated shocks of the president’s blond hair and a shirt declaring that the United States is “World War II champions”. Patrick told TPM that he had come to DC “for America”. His comments and the unfolding scene also clarified how much, at the moment, not everyone agrees on what America means.
“It turns out that this is where we live,” said Patrick before giving the demonstrators. “Everyone should have a voice – and it shouldn’t be that.”
