WASHINGTON — Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters descended on the nation’s capital Saturday for a parade marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, a rare spectacle of military hardware and uniformed soldiers filing down American streets.

The festivities, scheduled to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday as well as Flag Day, drew as much MAGA paraphernalia as American flags to Constitution Avenue. Attendees who spoke with The Times all expressed support for the president.

But outside the expansive security perimeter for the event, in downtown Washington and beyond in cities across the country, demonstrations of the “No Kings” movement against Trump’s rule countered his military display with a show of defiance.

The parade kicked off early, with Trump leaving the White House for the festivities roughly 45 minutes ahead of schedule over weather concerns. He arrived to rapturous applause from the modestly sized crowd roughly 30 minutes before a light rain began. An opening video montage celebrating the Army made no mention of Trump, although videos aired at the Mall festival ahead of the official program did include images of the president in MAGA gear.

The pageantry of equipment, and of troops rallying around the commander in chief, comes amid a fierce battle in federal court over Trump’s use of the armed forces, one week after he federalized the National Guard and deployed it to Los Angeles. A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the deployment had violated the law.

But the official program for the parade, drafted by the Army, offered wholesome patriotism to viewers and spectators that lent an Independence Day spirit to the festivities.

A narrator walked through the history of the U.S. military as weapons and uniforms from each American war, starting with the Revolution, was marched past a podium where the president sat, alongside the first lady, vice president and secretary of Defense, among others.

A parachute team jumped from the skies over the mall, historic aircraft flew overhead, and modern tanks rolled by throughout the evening. Dozens of planes and helicopters, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of troops participated in the event — just a preview of the festivities expected next year, when the nation marks 250 years since the United States declared independence.

Trump had sought a military parade ever since his first term, when he fawned over the sight of a military march down the Champs-Élysées during a Bastille Day celebration in Paris. Saturday’s event, according to an Army spokesperson, will cost between $25 million and $45 million, depending on how much damage the tanks inflict on D.C. roads.

Most revelers were enthusiastic at the sight of hardware that rarely makes it out for public viewing. Several attendees expressed excitement at the opportunity to celebrate the sacrifices and accomplishments of the Army.

Ashton Earl, 30, a legislative assistant who lives in the district, stood at the edge of the parade route holding his 3-year-old daughter, Carol, up in his arms while his 4-year-old son, Hiram, sat on his shoulders, so they could both see the tanks rolling by.

Both of them seemed to be loving the show — and being there with Grandma, their dad’s mom, Beth, who stood with them.

Earl said it had been a great event for the family.

“For one, kids love trucks,” he said with a smile.

“One of the great things about living in D.C. is you get to show your kids things they’d never see anywhere else in the country,” he added. “I love my country, and I want them to as well.”

But in the midst of supporters, near the main bandstand, stood Kathy Straus, 63, of Richmond, Virginia. Straus held a protest sign reading, “$45 Million = 1 Parade or Feeding 18,000 Vets for 1 Yr.”

“I think we can spend our dollars a little more conscientiously,” she said, adding, “I thought it was more important to share this message with people who are of a different mindset than me.”

Ahead of the start of the parade on Saturday, visitors posed alongside tanks, jeeps and other military vehicles parked along the Mall, part of a large “festival” area between the Capitol and the Washington Monument. One stand near the Mall offered shirts for sale reading “The Big, Beautiful Military Parade,” a reference to the similarly named spending bill that Trump is championing in Congress.

After waiting in long lines, people cleared security checkpoints where they passed through metal detectors and had their bags — limited in size — checked by law enforcement. Inside, troops handed out bottled water for free from tents. “Take as many as you want,” one said. “Stay hydrated.”

Paul Brown, a 57-year-old Army veteran, had driven to the event from Ohio. On Saturday, he wore a shirt that said, “Jesus is my savior. Trump is my president,” and a hat reading, “Afghanistan War Veteran, U.S. Army.”

Brown said he served from 2010-16, and deployed to Afghanistan for nine months in 2012 and 2013 before being medically retired. He told The Times that the parade was a great thing.

“I was in the Army, and it’s nice to have somebody who gives a s— about the military, especially the commander in chief,” he said. “And if other countries are watching, they’ll see we can flex our muscles, too, if we have to.”

Of criticisms that such parades aren’t commonly held in America, he said, “that’s the problem — it’s something America should have been doing.”

The president has had a complicated relationship with the military. During his first term, Trump called service members killed in combat “suckers” and “losers,” according to his former chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly. Trump has denied the claim.

While a handful of counterprotests took place in Washington ahead of the president’s event, dozens more were held across the country. The “No Kings” protests brought out more than 2 million Americans to protest Trump’s rule, according to their organizers.

“Real power isn’t staged in Washington,” the group’s website read ahead of the event. “It rises up everywhere else.”

Hundreds of thousands came out to demonstrate as part of the movement across Southern California, with additional large gatherings taking place in Philadelphia, New York and other major cities. But protesters turned out in smaller cities, as well, including some in the most conservative states in the country.

In Idaho, where Trump prevailed with 67% of the vote in November, more than a dozen “No Kings” rallies were scheduled. In Boise, a couple thousand protesters had gathered in front of the state Capitol building by 1 p.m., and crowds were still streaming in.

There were sun hats and kids in strollers, wheelchairs and mountain bikes. American flags fluttered, along with the occasional LGBTQ+ banner. A single Mexican flag was wrapped around a young woman’s shoulders. Law enforcement kept a low profile, and there were no obvious counter-protesters by the time speeches began.

Les Herman, a 74-year-old Boise resident, joined the boisterous rally, he said, because “this country has gone too far right.”

“I’m a Vietnam veteran,” he continued. “This is personal. I went to a war that was unpopular…I didn’t live to come back to see what I see today.”

Mirren Henny, a 27-year-old transplant from Glendora, texted back and forth with her parents, who were attending similar rallies in California, sharing photos of their signs. Henny’s said, “Lady Liberty Welcomes the Tired not the Tyrants” on one side, “JD Vance ate my cat” on the other.

“I’m here because I oppose a lot of what Trump’s imposing,” she said as the crowd chanted, “No kings! No kings! No kings!” “It’s really scary.”

The Trump administration said it welcomes peaceful protests throughout the country. But that White House commitment was called into question when a federal judge in California ruled Thursday that Trump had violated the law by federalizing the National Guard in response to largely peaceful demonstrations in Los Angeles protesting its immigration enforcement tactics.

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he was “troubled by the implication” inherent in the Trump administration’s argument that “protest against the federal government, a core civil liberty protected by the First Amendment, can justify a finding of rebellion.”

Trump wrested control over the National Guard troops from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy 2,000 to Los Angeles after less than 24 hours of protests across the city.

Thousands more were later called to Los Angeles, as were hundreds of Marines.

Late Thursday, following an appeal by the administration, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals put Breyer’s decision on hold, leaving the forces in L.A. under Trump’s control as the litigation continues.

The legality of Trump’s troop display in Washington was never challenged. But concerns persisted leading up to the parade inside the military that the visual of an Army march in Washington, at Trump’s request, could feed into fears over the politicization of the military amid the ongoing crisis in Los Angeles.

Critics of the administration also expressed unease over their presence in an American city, blasting the parade as the sort of spectacle more expected from countries like Russia, China and North Korea.

Security measures around the event were similar to those put in place during other major events in Washington’s downtown core since Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to keep Trump in office after his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.

The insurrection caused widespread damage to the Capitol and put many lawmakers at risk. Trump pardoned all of the Jan. 6 defendants shortly after he was reelected.

Jeanette Mangia, 46, stood on the National Mall on Saturday afternoon waiting for a friend — a “fellow J6er,” as she put it.

Mangia was among those charged with participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection. She faced a dozen charges, including multiple assault charges, she told The Times, and was in jail for seven months before Trump won reelection and issued the pardons.

She had driven down from Pennsylvania for the parade. It was her first time back in Washington since her release, she said.

“It feels kind of strange, know what I mean?” she said, pointing around the Mall. “I seen these streets every time I went back and forth to court” from jail.

Mangia had a “Trump 2028” hat on, and said she wants him to run again — which the Constitution forbids — “if there’s no better option.”

“He’s the lesser of two evils, that’s for sure,” she said.

She was hoping to meet up with a group of other so-called J6ers on Saturday to make some kind of statement about their deserving compensation for being jailed, she said. “Some people want millions. I don’t want that,” she added. “I just want to be made whole.”

———

(Times staff writer Maria L. LaGanga, in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.)

———

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.