Around this time eight years ago, Donald Trump attended Bastille Day celebrations in France in 2017, which the president apparently loved — in part because it included a military parade along the Champs-Élysées. “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” the Republican said after the event, adding, “It was military might.”
Soon after, Trump began pushing for a related display in Washington, D.C., which was not an especially popular idea, even among many of his allies. According to multiple reports, Gen. Paul J. Selva, the then-vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the president during a Pentagon meeting that military parades were “what dictators do.”
There were similar reactions on Capitol Hill, including among Republicans. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said ostentatious American military parades would likely be “a sign of weakness,” adding that he wasn’t interested in a “Russian-style hardware display.”
Around the same time, GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana explained, “Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud. When you’re the most powerful nation in all of human history, you don’t have to show it off, like Russia does, and North Korea, and China. And we are the most powerful nation in all of human history. Everyone knows that, and there’s no need to broadcast it. I think we would show our confidence by remaining silent, and not doing something like that.”
The White House’s plan ultimately unraveled in 2018 — though in politics, it’s often tough to keep bad ideas down.
On Saturday, June 14, the president will finally get the military parade he’s long sought, ostensibly celebrating the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary. The event will also fall on Flag Day, as well as Trump’s 79th birthday.
Seven years after Graham said such displays would likely be “a sign of weakness,” the South Carolinian told NBC News this week that he’s now “okay” with the parade. And while that trajectory was probably predictable given Graham’s broader political evolution, as HuffPost noted, many of his colleagues were more reluctant to talk about the event.
They snapped. They stared off into space. They zipped into Senate elevators and smiled as the doors closed with them safely inside. This is how nearly a dozen Senate Republicans reacted Wednesday when asked the simplest question: Do you plan to attend President Donald Trump’s military parade in D.C. on Saturday, and are you comfortable with its estimated $45 million price tag?
What’s more, GOP senators aren’t just loath to answer questions about the military parade, they’re also disinclined to show up for the festivities: Politico reported that most congressional Republicans won’t be in attendance when tanks start rolling down Constitution Avenue, and “those begging off include members of the Republican leadership in both chambers.”
As for intraparty criticism, Graham has apparently changed his mind, but other Senate Republicans have subtly made clear that they’re not fully on board with Trump’s vision. “I wouldn’t have done it,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told NBC News this week. “I’m not sure what the actual expense of it is, but I’m not really, you know, we were always different than, you know, the images you saw in the Soviet Union and North Korea. We were proud not to be that,” Paul said. (He clarified that he was “not proposing” that that’s the image Trump intends to project, but he’s worried what message the parade will send.) As for Louisiana’s Kennedy, the senator echoed the point he raised during the president’s first term. “The United States of America is the most powerful country in all of human history. We’re a lion, and a lion doesn’t have to tell you it’s a lion. Everybody else in the jungle knows and we’re a lion,” the senator said. It’s a point Trump will probably never fully understand.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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