Trump Made His Supporters Endure Misery To Attend His Military Parade
Between the hours of sweltering heat and waiting in lines that went for blocks, it's no wonder the energy was so low at Trump's authoritarian-style display.
It was a very long and uncomfortable day. The Army festival started at 11 a.m., and the parade didn’t begin until 6:30 p.m. Thousands of people and families of all ages stood in long, slow-moving lines on the National Mall to get through security for the festival in oppressively humid heat. And then did it again for the parade, except this time the line went on for blocks.
The result? …. While Trump and other VIPs sat in relative comfort, the parade attendees ― whether MAGA faithful or just military aficionados ― were thrown into an environment seemingly designed to drain their energy before the headlining events. And as the day wore on, they were increasingly surrounded by boisterous anti-Trump protesters.
People “
could” get water once inside the festival, but food was scant, save a couple of ice cream vendors and
some free lollipops tossed on a table.
There was barely any shade. Children still had fun, climbing inside helicopters cockpits and atop tanks where parents posed for photos with their toddlers aiming massive guns. It was crowded, but certainly not at max capacity. For all the lines to get in, it was easy to walk around. Up front, rows of chairs set up by the main stage sat empty.
When it got closer to the time to head over to the parade, it wasn’t clear where to go. There weren’t many signs.
Hours in the sun, kids were starting to melt down, and streets barricaded off to traffic were filled with thousands of out-of-towners wandering around, asking police officers for directions to a security checkpoint that was blocks away.
If people still had stamina by this point in the evening, the sight of the blocks-long lines to get through security for the parade was enough to make some of them throw in the towel. HuffPost watched as various people and families wandered up to assess the line, talked among themselves and
then walked away.
“I’m old and tired,” one middle-aged woman remarked to HuffPost, from outside the security perimeter. She said she had a ticket for the parade but was ditching it to go home.
One secret service agent passed by HuffPost muttering about how to get the crowd dispersed after the parade and seemed reluctant to get aggressive about it, “
just for some fucking propaganda.”
Protesters had grown by the dozens as people trickled out of the parade. They gathered on a street corner by one of the parade exits to greet people with jeers and signs like “All Hail Commander Bone Spurs” and “Stop Fascism Now.”
“Fuck Trump!” they shouted in unison at parade attendees filtering out of the event. “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
So after a painfully long day of lines and sweltering heat, many of the people who showed up to honor Trump in MAGA gear ended their day by being publicly shamed.
But Trump still got his birthday parade.
….) and it will stay that way!
