WASHINGTON, DC—President Trump’s big birthday parade was met by protests and scenes in the nation’s capital that showed how split the country has become in his second term.
Saturday’s event — which came with an estimated cost of $25 million to $45 million — was mired in controversy before it began, with concerns about tanks damaging the streets around the National Mall and polls showing nearly two thirds of American adults did not approve of spending public funds on the spectacle. It also took place against the backdrop of protests against Trump’s mass deportation drive in California, which have been met with arrests and an often-violent response from a mixture of local law enforcement and federal forces, including ICE and the military.
While the U.S. has previously held military parades following victories on the battlefield, this march was unmistakably all about Trump. The president has pushed for a military parade since early in his first term after being impressed by a Bastille celebration that he saw in France. Saturday’s events were billed as honoring the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, but they also coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
Trump and other officials watched the procession of soldiers and armored vehicles from a reviewing stand, but many people on the ground in Washington did not witness any of the show of force. Instead, they were treated to vivid demonstrations of the tensions inspired by Trump’s administration.
Despite a clear threat of violence from the crackdown on the West Coast and comments from Trump last week that any protests at his parade would be “met with very heavy force,” hundreds of demonstrators turned out in D.C. Around the country, millions of activists countered Trump’s event with a massive nationwide wave of “No Kings” rallies and marches. However, the organizers of that group specifically avoided the nation’s capital due to what they described as potential for “conflict” with thousands of troops in the city.
But the lack of a larger organized event did not stop some protesters, who felt it was crucial to make a direct stand against the president. While there were anti-Trump activists scattered throughout Washington on Saturday, the largest demonstration was a march from the Logan Circle neighborhood to Lafayette Park, which sits just outside the White House.
“This is the only place to be!” one speaker declared through a megaphone. “Right across from the White House! As close as they’ll let us go.”
The site of the demonstration is a significant one in Washington’s recent history. During Trump’s first term, Lafayette Park and the surrounding streets were the center of Black Lives Matter protests that erupted following the death of George Floyd in 2020. Trump met those crowds with tear gas, the National Guard, and an array of federal law enforcement in the final months of the president’s first term. Since Trump took office again earlier this year, Republicans in Congress have literally pushed to erase some of that history and pressed D.C. to paint over the mural that once marked the area outside the park as “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
On Saturday, black security fencing that was installed ahead of the parade kept the crowds out of the half of the park closest to the White House. Signs and speakers addressed a myriad of issues including concerns about ICE, the war in Gaza, and Trump’s drastic cuts to federal agencies. The main organizer of the march and rally in the park was a group named “Refuse Fascism.” Their signage called for Trump’s ouster and equated his event to a dictatorial spectacle. It included placards that said “TRUMP MUST GO NOW” and “NO TO TRUMP’S FASCIST MILITARY PARADE.”
While the view from the ground in Washington D.C. on Saturday showed off 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 protesters. This included livestreamers eager to engage in the trolling and digital debate that has become a defining feature of our political moment. Right-wing Florida radio host turned congressional candidate Mark Kaye patrolled the edge of the park engaging in arguments as his phone camera rolled. Another man wielded a puppet named Edgar that has over 80,000 subscribers on a YouTube page featuring his mocking interactions with liberals and merch that gleefully embraces the term “fascist.”
“Which way Western man? Patriotic male or buttersoft bitch?” Edgar and his puppeteer asked.
After over an hour in Lafayette Park, the demonstrators proceeded to march back to Logan Circle. En route, an English professor from West Virginia named Emily Ziebarth talked to TPM and acknowledged the threat of violence that hung over the event.
“I … have been to — I can’t even count how many protests now since January — and I take my child, usually. And one thing that changed for me this week was that I decided not to bring my kid, but I decided I had to go to the nation’s capital because these are literally our streets,” Ziebarth said. “To be told that we can’t come exercise the right that we literally made a country about is lunacy.”
Ziebarth said she planned to stay in Washington throughout the day in order “to be wherever I can have my voice and my body on the line for our country.”
“I respect the people and those organizations who want to keep people safe, but it’s pre-emptively compliant and, I think, if you just tell the person who you’re protesting that you will do what they say immediately when they threaten anything, they’re going to keep going even harder,” Ziebarth said. “So, there’s nowhere else that I would have been today.”
As the crowd of marchers approached Logan Circle, they chanted “Hands off LA!” and blared music including the anti-fascist anthem “Bella Ciao.” A man who gave his name was Osi said he came to D.C. from Maryland — which hosted “No Kings” demonstrations — because fascism “wins when everyone’s quiet and subservient to their fear tactics.”
“I came into the district because this is where the seat of power is. I think, ultimately, ‘No Kings’ is correct to not have a big presence here. It could end up violent, but at the end of the day, Trump is back there. He’s at the White House,” Osi said, pointing down the street. “Being anywhere but where Trump is and where his military parade is isn’t going to be as effective because he can ignore us there. Here, he can’t ignore us — we’re right there in front of his door.”
The crowd largely dispersed after arriving in Logan Circle. Volunteers clad in neon vests made the rounds and warned people that the permit for the event was set to expire. They also encouraged the protesters to leave in groups.
“We don’t know what MAGA might be lurking,” one man said.
Ultimately, despite the ominous overtones, the day remained nonviolent. On Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department told TPM “zero arrests were made” in conjunction with the parade and associated demonstrations. In Logan Circle, some of the protesters were evidently pleased with the lack of conflict generated by the event in a city others had avoided.
“We are so peaceful!” a man shouted as the crowd dispersed. “Give yourselves a round of applause, people!”
Later in the afternoon, the main threat seemed to be severe weather. However, despite flash flood warnings and thick electric skies, no storm came down.
Though there were no weather interruptions, for some of the Trump supporters and military who sought to join the crowd on the Mall and view the procession, the event was effectively canceled.
Despite evidently sparse crowds for the parade, over an hour before the scheduled start time, multiple entrances to the secure area along the route were closed. Crowds, many of them decked out in Trump merch, wandered for over a mile along the black security fencing downtown looking for a way in. Demonstrators were mixed among them, including some who offered help even as they waved anti-Trump signs.
“They’ve shut down the entrance,” a woman told a man who found himself at the locked gates to the parade. “You have to walk down to 14th.”
“You’re kidding,” he said, shaking his head.
“Enjoy your dictator’s parade!” another protester shouted.
While police and military directed the crowds to certain entrances, those were all closed as well. The situation left hundreds of would-be attendees craning to get glimpses of tanks, planes, and parachutists from behind a security fence. One camo-clad man named Joe described himself as a supporter of both Trump and the military who had driven over ten hours from Alabama to see the parade.
“We haven’t seen much of it,” Joe said.
As people leaving the parade mixed in with those who were unable to see it, they engaged in verbal clashes with the protesters who were also milling outside the fencing.
“Save America! Fuck Trump!” shouted a group of young men who were marching together in a circle.
“There’s kids! Shut up!” yelled a woman who was shepherding two children in red MAGA hats away from the parade.
Not everyone in Washington got to see the military spectacle, but they all had a chance to see the depths of division in the country.
A man named Patrick, who said he was from San Diego, was scootering around the parade exit in a Trump visor with mock shocks of the president’s blonde hair and a shirt declaring the U.S. to be “Back to Back World War Champs.” Patrick told TPM he had come to D.C. “for America.” His comments and the unfolding scene also made clear just how much, at this moment, not everyone agrees on what America means.
“It turns out that’s where we live,” Patrick said before gesturing toward the demonstrators. “Everybody should have a voice — and it shouldn’t be that.”
