WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump hosted the largest US military parade in decades on his 79th birthday as protesters rallied across the country to accuse him of acting like a dictator. Trump hailed the United States as the “hottest country in the world” after watching tanks, aircraft and troops file past him in Washington on Saturday to honour the 250th anniversary of the US army.
It formed a stark split screen with turmoil at home and abroad, as police used teargas to disperse protesters in Los Angeles and US ally Israel traded missile fire with Iran in a rapidly escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Trump’s parade on an overcast night in Washington came after hundreds of thousands of “No Kings” demonstrators thronged the streets in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta.
The Republican largely avoided his usual domestic political diatribes in an unusually brief speech and instead focused on praising the US army, saying that they “fight, fight, fight, and they win, win, win.”
The display of military might comes as Trump asserts his power domestically and on the international stage.
“No Kings” organisers said protesters gathered in hundreds of places, with AFP journalists seeing large crowds in several cities.
Organizers said they were protesting against Trump’s dictatorial overreach, particularly what they described as the strongman symbolism of the parade.
“I think people are mad as hell,” Lindsay Ross, a 28-year-old musician, told AFP in New York, where tens of thousands of people rallied.
Some protesters targeted Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, while a small group even gathered in Paris. – Nampa/AFP