Waste, fraud and abuse

Remember that expensive, wasteful military parade that President Trump forced on everyone in June? Now our dear leader wants a redo—by sea.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Navy is planning a larger parade for this fall after the president told aides he was “disappointed” by the marching and paltry attendance. The second parade is reportedly to celebrate the Navy’s 250th anniversary, much like the summer parade was focused on the anniversary of the U.S. Army.

[...]

It’s unclear what else will be different about this parade aside from the personnel. If Trump was upset by the lack of turnout at his earlier parade, especially after comparing it to the March on Washington, it’s unclear how the Navy would change that.

  New Republic

They'll pay people to attend.

We are not amused

The president reportedly “reamed” out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the spectacle—which was advertised as a celebration of the Army’s 250th anniversary but conveniently fell on Trump’s birthday—as well as the soldiers who took part in it, according to biographer Michael Wolff.

[...]

Wolff revealed that Trump was “pissed off at the soldiers.” He reportedly wanted the troops to appear “menacing,” but instead they were “having a good time,” per Wolff.

“He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”

[...]

“Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, The tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem.”

  New Republic

Seems like the troops thought they were celebrating the 250th birthday of the Army.

“It didn’t send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise,” Wolff said of the lavish Army anniversary.

The White House did not respond well to Wolff’s account of the festivities, instead opting to publicly slander Wolff as a fraudster and a “lying sack of shit.”

“He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Beast.

Steven Cheung, the ass who tweeted that there were hardly any protesters and the parade had glorious millions.

Trump was also disturbed by the American soldiers’ marching pattern, which went viral in the wake of the parade due to the troops’ asynchronous steps.

[...]

“Every soldier learns how to march during basic training, and it’s not hard. It’s remarkably easy,” [Charlotte Clymer, a U.S. Army veteran and former member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also known as “The Old Guard,"] told the digital publication, emphasizing that the troops would have had a dress rehearsal days prior.

“I don’t think this was a protest against Trump, or anything adjacent to anti-fascism or concern with how the government is operating,” she continued. “I don’t think it had anything to do with that. I think this is just because they were treated very poorly and they didn’t care. I think the soldiers who were misstepping during the parade—there were a lot of them—were just tired, annoyed, probably to some extent angry, and they just did not give enough of a shit to march to a high standard of excellence.”

WE can all suppose what happened. She might be right. They might be unhappy being commanded by Pete Hegseth.  Maybe they'd like Trump to replace him.

Donald Trump’s military parade was an undeniable failure, but apparently, the small crowds may have been due to pathetic party planning.

Amanda Moore, a journalist who spent 11 months undercover with the alt-right, filmed the crowds of swirling onlookers Saturday—but as she explained, they were in the wrong place.

“The marketing material said the entrance was on 14, but in reality it was on 12 St and you had to go through this pen for two blocks. Everyone who was around to answer questions was an asshole, too. Probably part of the issue!” she wrote on X.


In a video taken by Anarchy Princess, an activist best known for messing with Peter Navarro, Trump supporters and other attendees swarmed around a large street where they couldn’t actually see the parade, and were promptly ushered out of the viewing zone.* Moore said she’d observed that there were more than 3,000 to 5,000 people gathered in the wrong place, and that many of them had already missed the parade, which was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. but actually started earlier to beat the rain.
  New Republic

Well played. It does, however, look like a sizeable crowd, unlike other images.

Anarchy Princess wrote on X, “Ok so there actually was a ton of people at the #250army parade but they were all stuck outside the gates like herded cattle and never made it to the bleachers.”

“Lots of disappointed children who waited hours in long lines in the sun only to be herded out through piles of trash and didn’t even see the parade,” she wrote in a separate post.

[...]

[Doug Landry, the founder of 50 Thirteen, a live event production firm] blamed the event planners for providing maps to attendees that made no sense. “But how is anyone supposed to know where to go? These maps are the sum total of what they put out and they’re total garbage,” he wrote. “How is a regular person supposed to figure this out?”

They did it again

 

Wow. Looks exciting

 

Huuuuuge crowd.  

Somebody posted that the TikTok crew who ruined his crowd size last time around did it again - reserved tickets and didn't go.

They probably should have hired Rose Bowl personnel to organize.

Sad!

OMG.  They still don't know what that song is about.  And the birthday boy looks quite bored.  Sad!

They're going to have to seriously crop the images they show the orange god-king.

I have a question:  Why were they holding up drones in the march rather than flying them?

Wait...here's one they can use...

Not exactly an overwhelming crowd, but the most I've seen in any picture yet.

Wait. Is he taking a dump in his diaper?

Well, at least he got the photo he wanted...

White House advisor...

...or Minister of Propaganda.

You know the footage from this is going to play nonstop in China.

"Heavily" doesn't cut it.  LOL.

Cutting up at Trump's most serious moment.

UPDATE 06/15/2025:

By the end of the day, today.

Kudos to Team Canada Forever. Great video:

The world is laughing. 

UPDATE 06/18/2025:  Apparently, Himself was not pleased.

Parade symbolism

 

Make it rain on his parade

Every accusation is a confession.

UPDATE 08:29 am:

UPDATE 09:17 am:

Sad!  

Who knew Joe Biden controlled the weather?

LOL

In the US

Not every Republican is thrilled about the birthday parade

 

"ANYBODY WHO PROTESTS."  First Amendment protection be damned.

A quarter to a third of the population is die hard MAGA.  That's too many.

UPDATE 03:42 pm:

I don't suppose the fact that the reporter who asked the question is a black woman had anything to do with the little Nazi's snide response.

Aside from the fact that this was a very reasonable question considering Trump said protestors would be dealt with a heavy force, Bride of Chuckie, taking her cue from Trump, no doubt, is so disgustingly arrogant and nasty to people.  It's a very MAGA approach to life, and it's despicable.

Maybe they need more tanks for the parade

 Video clip here.

Mark your calendar - June 14

 

The idea is to show off the great mass of Americans who oppose Trump and his policies, but not to give him a confrontation that the White House might use to its advantage, and also not to appear that demonstrators have any quarrel with the rank-and-file soldiers who’ll be marching that day.

[...]

[G]etting permits to protest in D.C. under Trump have become a hassle, adding that the No Kings organizers are “highly committed to nonviolence and there is concern that there would be likely repression and potential escalation if they organized in D.C.”

[...]

There’s certainly a legitimate concern that if tens of thousands showed up in Washington to protest Trump’s parade, that would make the president’s birthday look like the big deal he wants it to be.

  Philadelphia Inquirer

Nah. But, the soldiers argument is a good one. And it probably would be impossible to get a permit at that time anyway. (That is to say, if you want to do it lawfully.) The other reason I've heard for why there will be no protest in DC that seems legit to me is that the police would be overwhelmed trying to handle both.  And I'm not sure that's a good reason, either.  Unless it means they'd call out the more brutal federal masked and heavily armed agents, provoking riots and injuries.  

On the other hand, there's also the argument that the media spotlights conflict, so if you want widespread coverage, conflict gets it.

There’s something to this. America only passed a Voting Rights Act in 1965 after the clubbings of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” were televised to a shocked nation.

[...]

There’s zero doubt that [Leah] Greenberg, her husband and Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, the members of Indivisible, and the other groups who’ve thrown themselves into Hands Off!, No Kings and other coast-to-coast protests have done a invaluable public service. They’ve shown the world that millions of Americans oppose Trump and will stand up for democracy.

But I can’t help thinking about what Frederick Douglass told an audience in upstate New York in 1857, when things still looked bleak for the anti-slavery movement in America.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” the formerly enslaved Douglass said. “It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

 Find a protest near you and show up.

Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

 

Trump is planning his birthday parade

 

The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated April 29 and 30 and have not been publicly released. They represent the Army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element — a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.

The Army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14.

[...]

[I]t would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size. Costs would include the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.

  AP

Somebody tell DOGE.

High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term, and the tanks and other heavy vehicles that are part of the Army’s latest plans have raised concerns from city officials about damage to roads.

[...]

The plans say the parade would showcase the Army’s 250 years of service and foresee bringing in soldiers from at least 11 corps and divisions nationwide. Those could include a Stryker battalion with two companies of Stryker vehicles, a tank battalion and two companies of tanks, an infantry battalion with Bradley vehicles, Paladin artillery vehicles, Howitzers and infantry vehicles.

There would be seven Army bands and a parachute jump by the Golden Knights. And documents suggest that civilian participants would include historical vehicles and aircraft and two bands, along with people from veterans groups, military colleges and reenactor organizations.

[...]

And it is expected that the evening parade would be followed by a concert and fireworks.

[...]

“We want to make it into an event that the entire nation can celebrate with us,” said [Army spokesman Col. Dave] Butler. “We want Americans to know their Army and their soldiers. A parade might become part of that, and we think that will be an excellent addition to what we already have planned.”

[...]

In a Truth Social post Thursday night that did not mention the June 14 plans, Trump wrote, “We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” He vowed to rename May 8, now known as Victory in Europe Day, as “Victory Day for World War II,” and to change November 11, Veterans Day, to “Victory Day for World War I.”

I thought November 11 was Veterans Day. Will we not have a Veterans Day now?

According to the plan, the parade would be classified as a national special security event.

What?

And what else will be happening on June 14?

In DC, the Army parade can just march right down to the protest and haul people off.

UPDATE 05/03/2025: