President Donald Trump presided over a show of American military might in the nation’s capital Saturday evening, a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army that became a test of wills and competing imagery, with demonstrators around the country decrying his expansion of executive power.
Trump sat in a reviewing stand on Constitution Avenue as armored vehicles dating from two world wars and overflights of 80-year-old bombers and modern helicopters shook downtown Washington. The city was locked down, divided by a wall of tall, black crowd-control fences designed to assure that the parade, the first of its kind since U.S. troops returned from the Gulf War in 1991, was an uninterrupted demonstration of history and American power.
It went off without a hitch, but also without even a nod to the current moment. When Trump left his seat between his wife, Melania Trump, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, it was to swear in new soldiers — "Have a great life,” he told them after the brief ceremony — and then, at sundown, to recall the Army’s greatest moments.
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