Hundreds of the United States cities were held manifestations Against the administration of President Donald Trump last June 14, all gathered under the motto No Kings (“No to kings”). The reference is to policies with authoritarian tendencies of the current US administration, in particular to anti-immigration policies. The date of June 14 is not accidental, given that in the same hours a Washington a military parade took place which officially celebrated the 250 years of history of the US army, but which casually fell on the day of Donald Trump’s birthday.
The military parade for the 250 years of the army and for President Trump
On June 14, thousands of soldiers and dozens of armored and combat vehicles paraded through the streets of Washington during one Parade to celebrate the two and a half centuries of the US army. Unlike many European countries (such as France, Italy or Spain), as well as several authoritarian regimes around the world, military parades are not common in the United States.
Among the various reasons there is also the will to preserve the Nature of the armed forceseven if the Trump administration is trying to erase this custom. For this reason, the last military parade in the streets of the Federal capital of the United States took place in June 1991, at the end of the First Gulf War against Iraq.
As is known since its first term, Donald Trump He has always insisted on his major staff to have “his” military parade. According to some commentators, this request would have become more pressing after attending the celebrations of July 14 in France, when in 2017 he was invited to assist you by President Emmanuel Macron. After years, the generals decided to satisfy the president, accidentally on the day of his 79th birthday. Thus Trump was able to assist from his stage mounted in Constitution Avenue to the passage of 28 tanks Abrams, 6700 soldiers, 50 helicopters, 34 horses, two mules, a dog and an B-25 bomber of the Second World War.
The estimated cost of this birthday gift is wandering around 45 million dollarsto which the 4 days of total blockage of different areas of the Washington DC center for safety and organizational reasons.
The “no king” protest in America against government authoritarianism
While the president enjoyed his military parade, millions of US citizens took to the street on the occasion of the No Kings Day to demonstrate against authoritarianism who is trying to infiltrate several levels in the administration of the country. According to Reuters’ estimates, they would have been more than 2000 events organized to protest against immigration policies of the Trump Administration, but also i cuts in federal expenses contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (literally the great and beautiful law) and the militarization of public order management in the United States.
In particular, after the presidential decision of June 7 to send the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles to manage the protests triggered by indiscriminate raids against irregular migrants carried out in the city by the agents of the Ice, which is the American federal agency in charge of controlling the safety of borders and immigration. The nature of the No Kings movement is peacefulas stated by its organizers, and most of the events took place without tensions, apart from some clashes between police and demonstrators in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
