Note (June 1, 2025): Since this was published, new details about the June 14th parade have emerged—including a lowered cost estimate ($25–$45 million), D.C. street damage concerns, and the relocation of a Vietnam vet memorial event. The broader sentiment still stands, but the specifics have shifted. Marking that here for the record.
You don’t have to be a combat vet to know parades suck. You just have to have worn the uniform long enough to be told to stand in formation on a hot-ass day, not move, not sit, not blink too hard, while some officer gets a photo op. Wake up at 0400. Rehearse for a week straight. All for a show nobody wants to be in, for people who don’t really understand what they’re watching.
That’s what parades are.
And now they want to throw one for him. Not for the country. Not for history. For his birthday.
June 14th. That’s the date.
The U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary falls on June 14th. So does the president's birthday. And instead of using this moment to reflect on the legacy of the Army—what it stands for, how it’s evolved, what sacrifices have been made—they're turning it into a personal show of strength. This isn’t about commemorating a historic milestone. It’s about ego. About bending a national moment into a private spectacle.
Parades to mark major anniversaries have happened before—on the centennial, the bicentennial. But those were focused on history, on service, on shared sacrifice. This one? It’s being built around a single man’s desire to be flattered in uniformed theater.
A solemn milestone, being hijacked by a regime that cares more about optics than oaths. Tanks. Helicopters. Troops in the streets of D.C. All to flatter a man who spent his draft years ducking bone spurs and mocking POWs.
There’s something deeply wrong about it. The United States was never supposed to honor presidents with military parades. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we were. You don’t roll out armored vehicles to celebrate a man. You do that to intimidate people. To remind them who holds the leash.
North Korea does that. Russia does that. The United States? We used to stand against that kind of thing. We used to see through it.
It’s hard to overstate how much active duty personnel hate this kind of shit. Ask anyone who’s ever had to bake in desert boots for hours on end, sweat soaking through their ACU's, just to stand in the sun and pretend it’s an honor. It’s not. It’s exhausting. It’s performative. It’s command-level cosplay for the cameras. No soldier I knew ever wanted to play prop for a politician’s ego.
June 14 happens to be both the Army's 250th anniversary and the president's birthday. It should be a day to honor generations of service and reflection on the institution’s role over time. But instead of letting the Army have its moment—quiet, solemn, earned—they’ve twisted it into a backdrop for one man’s self-congratulation.
This isn’t about commemorating anything real. It’s about personal glory. About hijacking a legitimate moment in American military history and turning it into a birthday balloon drop draped in camouflage.
That’s not patriotism. That’s appropriation.
This isn’t about honoring service.
This is about spectacle. About loyalty theater. About bending the military into a tool for personal pageantry.
And the price tag? $92 million. That was the estimate the last time this kind of vanity project was floated.
Meanwhile, they’ve slashed budgets for global food aid, pandemic response, and cancer research. USAID cuts alone are gutting programs that provide maternal health care and HIV treatment in fragile regions. The National Cancer Institute is bracing for reductions that could delay life-saving research. But sure. Let the president play warlord on his birthday.
No expense spared when it's about parading power. But when it's about veterans getting benefits? Or poor families getting insulin? Suddenly the belt tightens.
But not all of us are playing along.
On June 6th, a different kind of gathering is happening in D.C. — one that actually honors veterans by standing up for what we were promised.
Jobs. Healthcare. Dignity.
It’s called the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally. If you’re near D.C., or can get there, go. If you’re overseas like me, at least read about it. Because not every flag-draped display is worth saluting. Some are just warnings in plain sight.
I’ll be watching from far away, but I won’t be silent.