The U.S. Army turned 250 years old. Trump turned 79. Guess whose party it became.
A massive military parade rolled through Washington on Trump’s birthday, with Trump front and center as the focal point of the whole spectacle. The Army’s 250th anniversary — a genuine milestone worth celebrating — got absorbed into a made-for-TV event built around one man’s image.
This is what authoritarian aesthetics look like when they’re trying to seem normal. You don’t announce “I’m having a military parade for myself.” You find a legitimate occasion, you attach yourself to it, and you make sure the cameras can’t tell the difference between honoring the institution and honoring you.
The U.S. military serves the Constitution. It doesn’t exist to provide backdrops for a president’s birthday. When you can’t tell where the national celebration ends and the cult of personality begins, that’s not a coincidence — that’s the point.
Kim Jong Un has military parades on his birthday too.
The difference between a democracy and a personality cult is whether the military marches for the country or for the leader. That line got a lot blurrier in June 2025.
Sources: Reuters — parade explainer | Reuters — Army birthday planning