(Washington) On Donald Trump’s 79 years of 79 years, Washington will be the theater on Saturday of a rare military parade, when at the other end of the country, the American president mobilized thousands of soldiers in the event of demonstrations against his migration policy in Los Angeles.
That the capital of the United States hosts a major military parade is a rare event: the last dates back more than thirty years, to 1991, at the end of the Gulf War.
Suspended flights, navigation on the cut potomac, almost 30 km of fences: Washington sets out on break for the occasion and hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected.
The sky, announced stormy, may however come and play the spoilsport. Without dismissing potential changes, “a historic celebration of our soldiers will take place in any case,” said the White House to AFP.
Not embarrassed by questions about concomitance with his birthday, Donald Trump revels in advance from this demonstration of strength and pomp as he loves them.
“We’re going to show off a little,” he jubilant on Tuesday.
“We have the best missiles in the world. The best submarines in the world. The best tanks in the world. The best armament in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it, “he was breastfeeding a few weeks earlier.
From 6.30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. East), nearly 7,000 soldiers, some on horseback, many in military outfits of different eras, and some 150 military vehicles, overflown by around fifty aircraft, will parade along part of the Mall, the immense green esplanade in the heart of the American capital. Then paratroopers must give an American flag to Donald Trump, the commander -in -chief.
“No Kings”
Nearly a hundred military vehicles have crossed the country by Rail from Texas and ended up rallying Washington by truck.
For Ydelka Schrock, a veteran living in the region, “when you are strong, you don’t need to show it”.
The forties plans to participate on the same day with the family in the national mobilization “No Kings” against “authoritarianism” and “the militarization of our democracy”, which aims to be “the most important since the return to power of Donald Trump”. More than 1,500 rallies are identified across the country.
“If there are demonstrations, he will be answered with great strength,” warned Donald Trump on Tuesday.
“The president is of course favorable to peaceful demonstrations,” has nuanced the White House since.
The parade of Saturday, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the army, comes at a time when the Republican president deployed in Los Angeles, without consultation with the local authorities, nearly 5,000 soldiers, reservists of the National Guard and even Marine.
Demonstrations against the brutal arrests of immigrants have broken out in recent days in the second largest city in the United States, a movement punctuated by sporadic, sometimes violent clashes.
On the front line of opponents who protested against this extremely rare shipment of soldiers, the Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom sees it “the mad fantasy of a dictatorial president”.
“Vulgar”
In Washington on Saturday, “he will force our heroes to participate in a vulgar show to celebrate his birthday, as other fallen dictators have done so in the past,” he denounces.
“The day of his birthday is what the fascists do,” turns to AFP John Tyler, a veteran of the Vietnam War who came to demonstrate the interests of the veterans.
“You cut a lot of programs but you will spend a lot of money to organize a parade. This man is selfish. He doesn’t care about anyone other than him, ”enrages the septuagenarian. “I don’t know how Americans haven’t yet seized it. »»
The idea of a parade had long trotted in the head of Donald Trump, inspired by the Parisian parade on July 14 on the Champs-Élysées to which he attended in 2017.
But his project had not been materialized until then, in particular due to exorbitant costs at stake. That on Saturday is estimated at maximum $ 45 million by the US military. “Clopinettes compared to the value” of such an event, had considered the billionaire president on the NBC channel in May.
