Today is the day of the big military parade in Washington.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The U.S. Army celebrated its 250th anniversary with a rare military parade in – tonight in Washington, D.C. President Trump, who is marking his 79th birthday today, watched a procession of tanks, thousands of troops and several army aircraft from a special viewing stand. The massive military procession has been a priority for the president and also something detractors protesting the parade have criticized as inappropriate. NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf is on the National Mall and joins me now. Hi, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: The parade’s over now. How did it go? What’d you see?
LONSDORF: Well, you can probably hear the celebration is still going on behind me. But the parade is done, and it’s gone off as expected. The rain even held off for it. You know, the beginning walked viewers through the history of the Army using uniforms and vehicles from various wars and eras. There were troops in revolutionary war uniforms all the way up to present day. And then it ended with a big display of modern day tanks and artillery, armored vehicles. And a lot of aircraft flew over, too. There were the Golden Knight parachuters at one point, Black Hawk helicopters. Apaches flew over, too.
President Trump is here with first lady Melania. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is as well. And there are a lot of other people here, too, you know, spectators. The Army had estimated around 200,000 would show up. It’s hard to say just how many are actually here, but it’s pretty full.
DETROW: You talked to a lot of people beforehand. What did you hear?
LONSDORF: Yeah, you know, people were excited. There are lots of families. There are lots of active-duty servicemen and -women and veterans. I talked to Mike Davis (ph). He was waiting with me in this long line to get in. He’s active duty and has been serving in the Army for 30 years. He told me he was looking forward to this as a way to celebrate the Army, and he said he thought the parade was a good way to do that, although he doesn’t think it should happen very often.
MIKE DAVIS: I think this is, you know, something that maybe every other generation gets to witness. So let’s celebrate it under a good milestone.
LONSDORF: You know, this parade, like you said, is something President Trump has wanted since his first term, but he was talked out of it back then. Davis told me he’s glad it happened in relation to this celebration for the Army and not earlier, like Trump had wanted.
DETROW: It’s been a long time since there was a parade like this. You have to go back to 1991.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
DETROW: How is this parade different from that one?
LONSDORF: Right. A military parade like this is a rare sight in the U.S. There hasn’t been one, like you said, in decades, and the last one was to recognize the end of the Gulf War – commemorate soldiers who had lost their lives. There hasn’t been a major military parade in the U.S. in times of peace in a really long time. And, you know, what’s different in this one is it did have that historical element to it. You know, so that is something to note.
DETROW: What about protests? That was a big concern beforehand. Did you see…
LONSDORF: Right.
DETROW: …Anyone there speaking out against this display?
LONSDORF: Yeah, there were several people inside the fenced-in security area, you know, near the parade with protest signs, you know, against Trump. Many were just individuals on their own, you know, holding signs, wearing shirts, that kind of thing. But there wasn’t much of that sentiment here. You know, people here were generally very supportive of the event. Last night, there was an incident where several dozen protesters against the parade, many of whom were veterans, broke through a barrier around the Capitol and rushed toward it. U.S. Capitol police said they arrested many of them.
And, you know, largely, there were more than 1,500 coordinated protests around the country taking place against the parade today, which organizers were calling the No Kings protests, but there wasn’t one in D.C. today. There were some smaller ones that took place in other parts of the city. You know, like you said, I’ll note that President Trump said a few days ago that any protests at this parade would be met with, quote, “very big force.”
DETROW: And we’ll have…
LONSDORF: So that seems to have pulled them off.
DETROW: And we’ll have a little more on those protests around the country later on in the show. That is NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf on the National Pall (ph) – Mall. Thanks, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you.
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