President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to use the “strong strength” against “all” demonstrators during the military parade to be held in Washington this weekend.
“We are going to celebrate Big on Saturday,” Trump told journalists in the oval office just after talking about sending the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles to stifle the demonstrations. “If demonstrators want to go out, they will be welcomed with great strength.”
The parade to honor the army’s 250th anniversary also fell on the president’s 79th anniversary and intervenes only a few days after Trump ordered the troops of Los Angeles to respond to protests against American immigration and customs operations.
“People who want to protest will be met with great strength,” he said, noting that he had not yet heard of the intention to protest the military parade in Washington. “But these are people who hate our country. They will be welcomed with heavy force.”
The military vehicles of the American army are unloaded from the transport trucks near the National Mall in preparation for the parade of the 250th anniversary of the army, on June 10, 2025, in Washington, DC
Andrew Leyden / Zuma Press Wire via Shutterstock
ABC News contacted the White House to comment on the type of force to which Trump was referring in his comments on Tuesday.
Trump praised the size and early spectacle of the military parade, claiming Monday: “We have many tanks. We have all kinds of new and very old worldwide and the Second World War”, and that the military and American roles in the victories of the Second World War and the Second World War must be celebrated as other countries with their soldiers.
“It will be a parade, as I do not know if we have already had a parade like that. It will be incredible,” he said, adding that “thousands and thousands of soldiers” will walk in the streets in the military garb of various eras of the American army. “We have a lot of these army planes flying over, and we have tanks everywhere.”
President Donald Trump speaks with journalists from the White House Oval Office on June 10, 2025 in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
Twenty-eight Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley combat vehicles, 28 Stryker vehicles and four Paladin autopropulsed howles will participate in the parade, just like eight walking bands, 24 horses, two mules and a dog.
Fifty planes will also fly above.
Last month, the army spokesman Steve Warren told journalists that the service hosts peaceful demonstrations, noting that his motto is “what we will defend”, a reference to the commitment of the service to maintain democratic values.
“We don’t do crowd checks,” said Warren.
US army vehicles are unloaded near the National Mall in preparation for the army’s 250th anniversary, which will be followed by President Trump and more than 7,000 soldiers from the US military.
Andrew Leyden / Nurphoto via Shutterstock
Officials of the American secret services and Washington said on Monday that they followed nine small demonstrations but that they did not expect any violence.
“From the point of view of the secret services, it is simply the people who use this right of the first amendment to protest because we are not going to do anything with it,” said Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Washington field office of the secret services. “But if it becomes violent or if laws are infringed, that’s where [the Metropolitan Police Department]Park police, secret services will be involved. “”
The members of the California National Guard are custody before the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles, on June 9, 2025.
Daniel Cole / Reuters
However, the National Guard, including the National Guard of the Columbia district and those of other states, will be activated but unarmed.
Apart from Washington, progressive groups plan to demonstrate demonstrations against the Trump administration as the parade occurs, with the “No Kings” subsidiary protest performing in Philadelphia.
Anne Flaherty and Beatrice Peterson of ABC News contributed to this report.
