The majority of Republican veterans are not supportive of President Donald Trump‘s military parade planned for Washington, D.C., on June 14.
The president is hosting a military parade on June 14th, featuring 6,700 troops, 28 tanks, and 50 aircraft, ostensibly to commemorate the Army’s 250th birthday, which also coincides with the president’s birthday. This parade comes after the president was denied requests for a military parade during his first term.
A poll of veterans across political parties, conducted by Data for Progress and Common Defense, found that when asked, “Do you support or oppose ordering active duty U.S. military troops to perform a parade in honor of President Trump’s birthday?”, 70 percent of all veterans said they oppose Trump’s military parade, including 54 percent of Republican veterans, 71 percent of Independent veterans, and 96 percent of Democratic veterans.
Republican Senator Rand Paul has also spoken out against the parade, telling reporters: “I’m worried about the image. That it isn’t necessarily the best image to show.”
The poll surveyed 574 adult veterans nationally between April 14 and 24.
Eric Gay/AP Photo
Why It Matters
Donald Trump has started to call in National Guardsmen and even Marines to quell demonstrations in Los Angeles against his deportation policies, but this polling shows that he is starting to lose support among people who have served in the military, leading to questions over his ability to use troops to support his agenda.
Although the parade on June 14th is technically for the Army’s 250th birthday and could be seen as a celebration of people who have served their country, it is not viewed positively by the vast majority of veterans, according to this poll.
What To Know
Although 51 percent of veterans, according to the same poll, still have a favorable view of the president — compared to 47 percent of veterans who have an unfavorable view of the president — the parade is deeply unpopular among the same group of veterans polled.
Major General (Ret.) Paul Eaton, a senior adviser at VoteVets, told Newsweek: “Military hardware in the streets is much more of a totalitarian state [thing]. The Soviet Union. Kim Jong Un. This is not an American tradition, and it is just not how we do these things.”
Eaton told Newsweek that the army can celebrate its birthday by putting out the flags for its units and finding other ways to honor its history.
“We have every right and interest in honoring the 250th anniversary of the army, but a $45 million parade with tanks in the streets is just not the way America does things,” said Eaton. “I think it’s a very bad idea. I would like to see the colors of all our units and no tanks. That’s my position.”
This parade, which is projected to cost upwards of $45 million in taxpayer money, is one of many Trump administration decisions that have gained ire from veterans groups.
The Trump administration has proposed mass firings at the Department for Veterans Affairs (VA), which would result in longer wait times for veterans to receive healthcare.
A general told Congress on June 4 that the Trump administration’s call for money to be taken from the army to support anti-immigration efforts at the southern border would remove money intended for barrack repairs.
And veterans groups expressed anger at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s leaked proposal to rename the USNS Harvey Milk during Pride Month.
Speaking to wider rifts between veterans and the Trump administration, Eaton told Newsweek: “There is this growing concern that Mr. Trump is politicizing the military in a way that we haven’t seen in the past. And when you put tanks in the street, you’re basically trying to do what the Soviet Union and Russia, to a lesser degree now, did for years, where you’re projecting strength. And it’s really a false sense of bravado.”
Eaton also spoke about “the enormous stress being applied to our armed forces by the serving president,” referencing sending marines out to Los Angeles during the anti-ICE protests and giving long political speeches at military bases.
“All of this flies in the face of what has been normal, military, civil, military relations, and those relations are very much under stress right now. And the parade is a symptom of that malaise right now,” said Eaton.
Eric Gay/AP Photo
What People Are Saying
Retired Major General Paul Eaton told Newsweek: “The true strength of the US military is the democracy for which we stand. It’s the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It’s not military hardware or young men and women carrying weapons in the streets. That is not the image that American veterans, American active duty, wish to project.”
Republican Senator Rand Paul told reporters in Washington, D.C.: “We were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea. We were proud not to be that. And I don’t, I’m not proposing that that’s the image people want to project, but I’m worried about the image that it isn’t necessarily the best image to show.”
What Happens Next
The military parade will occur on June 14. Concurrently, 1,800 protests are planned across the country to protest the Trump administration.