TRUMP SHOWS MORE DESIRE FOR BECOMING AMERICA'S FIRST DICTATOR

This is a North Korean Parade. Is this what President Trump wants to compete with?

 

Trump wants to top the massive French military parade he witnessed with the French President Macron.

 

As expected, Donald Trump, who has asked politicians and Washington bureaucrats for loyalty to him personally, has once again shown his lack of understanding about being a US president.

 

After being impressed by his viewing the annual Bastille Day military parade last July with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and by watching the massive military parades of the North Korean’s, Trump now has a vision of US soldiers marching, and tanks and missiles rolling down the boulevards of Washington DC.

 

This is just as most dictators have reveled in displaying their military capabilities, as did Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Castro, Hussain, Duvalier, Noriega, and now North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.  Trump has now asked the Pentagon to plan a grand military parade later this year for showcasing the military might of the US armed forces.

 

Trump has long said publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but in a January meeting between Trump and top US Generals in the Pentagon’s “tank”, a room reserved for top-secret discussions marking a parade a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning.

 

Surrounded by the military’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump’s desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive.  “The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”

 

What you don’t hear is that at a time when due to Trump and the GOP’s tax cut, our debt is going through the roof, showing the military strength of the United States doesn’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks, missiles and high-tech hardware to Washington would run in the millions, and military officials have said it is unclear how they would pay for it.

 

A White House individual familiar with the planning described the discussions as “brainstorming” and said nothing was settled. “Right now, there’s really no meat on the bones,” said the official, and this was also leaked from an anonymous White House official

 

After The Washington Post first published this story, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that plans are underway.  “President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe,” Sanders said. “He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.”

 

Trump was overwhelmed by the uniformed French troops marching down Avenue des Champs-Elysees with military tanks, armored vehicles, gun trucks and carriers, complete with fighter jets flying over the Arc de Triomphe and painting the sky with streaks of blue, white and red smoke for the colors of the French flag.  Aboard Air Force One heading home from Paris, aides said Trump told them that he was dazzled by the French display and that he wanted one at home.  (Trump always revels in the pomp from anything that features him and his White House.)

 

A US military parade was still on Trump’s mind two months later when he met with Macron on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.  “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters. “It was two hours on the button, and it was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France.”

Trump, seated next to Macron, added: “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

 

Several administration officials have said the parade planning began in recent weeks and involves White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, but they cautioned that it is in the preliminary stages.  Key D.C. officials said they have yet to be notified of any parade plans.

 

Fortunately, many individuals in the US Congress don't support the idea of a giant military parade.  Both a number of Dems and the GOP Reps and Senators are against a giant, expensive, military parade.  One Representative said the United States doesn't need to show off its military might.  Everybody knows that the US is the strongest nation bar none.  And a GOP senator said he would prefer the money be spent in making sure our military was being trained and equipped to keep all Americans safe.

 

But even before Trump was sworn in as president, Trump was dreaming of America’s war machine on display in front of the White House and the Capitol.  “We’re going to show the people as we build up our military,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post before his inauguration. “. . . That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing off our military.”

 

Basically, like any authoritarian, Donald Trump loves all military parades.  It was a key reason he went to Paris last year.  Big military parades, even those launched with the best of intentions, do carry some major risks and troublesome historical echoes.  With a few exceptions, such as President George H.W. Bush’s 1991 parade down Constitution Avenue celebrating the US victory in the Persian Gulf War, presidents have avoided displays of military hardware.  These displays of military might are more associated in the American mind with the Soviet Union’s Red Square celebrations or, China's Tiananmen Square and more recently, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s efforts to show off his portable Taepodong nuclear missiles.

 

“I don’t think there’s a lack of love and respect for our armed forces in the United States,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. “What are they going to do, stand there while Donald Trump waves at them? It smacks of something you see in a totalitarian country, unless there’s a genuine, earnest reason to be doing it.”

 

The big military parade that Trump envisions was more common in another era of major dictators, but for Trump, that’s the period and the kind of "greatness" that he wants to bring back.

 

The location of the parade is still being discussed, though Trump has said he would like it to proceed along Pennsylvania Avenue, which links the Capitol and the White House.  But isn’t it interesting that his route would also pass by Trump’s family showpiece: TheTrump International Hotel.

“Set against the backdrop of American history, military parades do seem to harken back to the harsh days of the Cold War,” said Michael Beschloss, another presidential historian. “Those parades were a counterpoint to the parades in front of Lenin’s tomb at Red Square. One reason the Soviets had those parades was to distract the world from the fact that the Soviet military was actually much weaker than the Soviets were trying to claim.  But generally, the United States has shied away from parading its military assets, calculating that doing so was not necessary for the world’s preeminent superpower.”

 

There is no law or regulation preventing Trump from putting on a military parade, but there are plenty of potential complications that military leaders are likely to raise with the president.

 

One worry is very practical: that 70-ton tanks built for the battlefield would chew up Pennsylvania Avenue's blacktop.  The military might also want to weigh in on the kind of equipment on parade. One concern is that big displays of missile launchers might evoke Pyongyang-style nationalism more than American patriotism. 

 

A parade would probably be interpreted as another stroke of nuclear gamesmanship. Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen over the past year as Trump and Kim have taunted each other with playground nicknames and threats.

 

After Kim warned last month that he had a “nuclear button” on his desk, Trump replied: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

 

The White House official said a parade would have nothing to do with Trump’s feuds with Kim but would be designed as a broad show of strength to send a warning to all of America’s adversaries.

Then there are the domestic pitfalls. At a time when Chief-of-Staff Kelly and Secretary Mattis have been complaining about the state of military readiness and lobbying Congress for more money, pulling equipment off line for a costly parade could send the wrong signal.

 

There are personal risks for President Trump, as well. Although he attended a military high school, Trump did not serve in the armed forces, avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War by claiming bone spurs. Critics have called Trump disingenuous for basking in America's military glory.

 

“Who flipped the coin for the Super Bowl on Sunday?” asked Peter Feaver, a former Bush White House official and professor at Duke University. “It was Medal of Honor winners. Why? Because the military brings us together.”

 

But Feaver also issued a warning for Trump, who is known for his excesses.  “A military parade,” he said, “is the kind of thing that can easily be overdone.”

 

And Donald Trump always goes too far in most everything he does.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018