Parade 'just kind of lame'
J Oliver Conroy in Washington
Sun 15 Jun 2025 12.29 EDT
... For the next couple of hours, in heat and occasional drizzle, spectators watched as the US army celebrated its 250th birthday and, although he claims it is a coincidence, Trumps 79th with Americas largest and most controversial military parade in decades. Troops marched. Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled. Helicopters clattered. Paratroopers plunged out of the overcast sky ...
In California, national guardsmen and US marines have been deployed against the will of state authorities after Ice deportation raids have sparked widespread protests. In the Middle East, Israels attack on Iran has led to deadly retaliation. And early Saturday morning, an assassin impersonating a police officer shot two Democratic lawmakers and their families at their homes in Minnesota, killing a state representative and her husband and wounding a state senator and his wife ...
... although the armys marching went smoothly, the larger public event seemed less than well-planned. The garbage cans, few and far between, were overflowing. There werent enough exits. The only food source for thousands of people was a handful of food trucks with lines of 40 or 50 people waiting at each. Because the parade closed down blocks and blocks and there was a dearth of signs with clear directions, it was also extraordinarily difficult to find ones way in or out ...
A tent managed by a beverage company handed out room-temperature bottles of an energy drink, Phorm. The flavor, called Screamin Freedom, tasted like hard candies dissolved in water, and an advisory on the cans warned that they were not to be consumed by minors or pregnant women ...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/15/trump-army-parade