“I Want It to Be Like in France”: Why Donald Trump Decided to Hold a “Great Military Parade” in the US

Donald Trump is planning to hold a military parade on Independence Day. The corresponding order has been sent to the Pentagon. The ceremonial event is meant to emphasise the power of the American army and express the government’s respect to US servicemen. However, the White House head’s suggestion was interpreted in different ways: some began comparing to the president to another connoisseur of parades, i.e. the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In addition, Trump himself is saying that he is trying to outdo Emmanuel Macron. 

Marching down the avenue

US president Donald Trump proposed to hold a military parade on 4 July, the date when Americans celebrate Independence Day. The Washington Post was the first to say that the military has already begun preparing for the cortege. Later, Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, confirmed that the event would be held. According to her, Trump “requested the Department of Defence to examine the possibility of holding a celebration during which Americans can express their gratitude (to the armed forces)”.

“This was the order: “I want a parade like the one in France”, - a Pentagon source told the Washington Post.

On 14 July, a military parade with the inclusion of heavy armor and aircraft is traditionally held in Paris to commemorate Bastille Day. In 2017, Trump was invited to the parade by his French colleague Emmanuel Macron.

In September 2017, while on a second meeting with Macron, Trump expressed a desire to arrange something similar in the United States, having remarked that the spectacle in Paris left an impression on him.

“We can arrange something similar to many of the things I have seen on the 4th of July in Washington, on Pennsylvania Avenue,” — Trump said. — “We should also try to do some things better”.

According to the American president, the US should have a “truly great parade that demonstrates our military might”.

“I will have a talk with General Kelly and with all people who have something to do with this, and we’ll see if we can organise this this year. But we will definitely begin to”,— the US president emphasised.

If the US will decide anyway to hold a military parade comparable to the French one, they will have to spend several million dollars, The Washington Post claims. The paper adds that Washington would prefer to hold the parade not on Independence Day, but on 11 November: the day of the 100-year anniversary of the end of the First World War, which is also the date of American Veterans Day.

“A parade is a completely normal thing to Americans, and they hold them as well, just not at the same scale. They do not have parades that are comparable to ours on 9 May on the Red Square, but they hold them in military academies and some other places,” – as was told by Sergei Kislitsin, a researcher of the Centre for North-American Studies of the Institute for Global Economics and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. — “Trump most likely sees a show of force in the event”. 

According to the president of the American University in Moscow, Eduard Lozansky, Trump’s decision to hold a parade is contingent on his attempts to raise his authority in the armed forces.

“I see this as an attempt to in some way heighten his prestige among his electoral base, seeing as we know that the army is always more supportive of the Republicans than the Democrats. So I see this as the continuation of a foreign policy battle, and not as a show of force to the whole world”, — the expert explained in an interview for RT.

“Who's the Rocket Man now?” 

American society met the president’s proposition ambiguously. Many criticised Trump on social media. Former Pentagon and State Department press secretary John Kirby compared Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

John Kirby
✔@johnfkirby63
A hardware parade for an audience of one. Who's the Rocket Man now? https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/961013093852643329 …

 

@EdKrassen

Trump has ordered a large military parade similar to how the Soviet Union used to do it. What’s his obsession with the Soviets? Does he know that this went out of style decades ago and the Soviet Union collapsed?

 

“This is a continuation from the beginning of his presidential campaign. He is not just compared to Kim Jong Un, bot to Hitler as well. And he is, of course, the “best friend of the main crook of this planet” (Vladimir Putin), as the American press likes to portray him. Whatever he does, the press will always find a way to degrade and offend him. They did not even mistreat Nixon this heavily”, - Lozansky noted. 

A part of Trump’s supporters was also not pleased the move. 

 

“The American armed forces are cool. A massive demonstration of military power on the peaceful streets of the US is not”, — conservative journalist Ben Shapiro writes. 

 

“What’s the problem?”— user Mari protests in turn. — “I like military parades”. 

 

“Any action from Trump is seen as hostile, especially by representatives of liberal circles but by some Republicans as well, because they reduce this to a manifestation of dictatorial plans. In general, they try to depict him as despotic ways of rule. However, I do not share this opinion,” — Kislitsin notes. — “Military parades are also held in Great Britain, and according to American standards Great Britain is not a dictatorship”. 

 

 

In contrast to many other states, the United States of America do not have a tradition of holding large-scale yearly military parades. Servicemen sometimes take part in corteges in honour of a presidential inauguration, Independence Day, and some other holidays, but purely military parades with a demonstration of armored vehicles on the streets of American citizens were until this moment only held after a war had ended. 

 

For example, in 1865 145 Union soldiers marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, which marked the end of the US Civil War. Military parades were also held in 1918 and 1945 in honour of returning combatants from the First and Second World War. Parades were not held after the Korean War or War in Vietnam ended. 

 

 

“I saw that parade; I was in Washington on that day”,— Eduard Lozansky notes. — “There is no tradition of parades in America. There hasn’t been one: the president has been in the White House for over a year, but there are attempts are being made to this day to prove that the elections were illegitimate and a foreign power (the main suspect being Russia) brought Trump to power”. 

 

According to Lozansky, there is an information war with the involvement of the mass media and the so-called establishment against Trump. 

 

“This parade is an attempt to get the armed forces on side, as Trump will be dependent on them in case of – God forbid! – a civil war or coup attempt”, — the expert affirmed. 

 

According to Sergei Kislitsin, Trump, being a traditional Republican, is in favour of a strong military and support for the armed forces, which is why both military traditions and shows of force are not foreign to him.