President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to use “heavy force” against “any” protesters at the military parade being held in Washington this weekend.
“We’re going to celebrate big on Saturday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office right after he spoke about sending the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests there. “If any protesters want to come out, they will be met with very big force.”
The parade to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary also falls on the president’s 79th birthday and comes just days after Trump ordered troops to Los Angeles to respond to protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
“People that want to protest will be met with big force,” he said, noting that he hadn’t heard of any plans to protest at the military parade in Washington yet. “But this is people that hate our country. They will be met with heavy force.”
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ABC News reached out to the White House for comment on what kind of force Trump was referring to in his comments Tuesday.
Trump has touted the size and anticipated spectacle of the military parade, saying on Monday, “We have many tanks. We have all sorts of new ones and very old ones old from World War I and World War II,” and that the military and the U.S. roles in victories in World War I and World War II need to be celebrated as other countries do with their militaries.
“It’s going to be a parade, the likes of which I don’t know if we’ve ever had a parade like that. It’s going to be incredible,” he said, adding that “thousands and thousands of soldiers” will march through the streets in military garb from various eras of the U.S. military. “We have a lot of those army airplanes flying over the top, and we have tanks all over the place.”
Twenty-eight Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker vehicles, and four Paladin self-propelled howitzers will participate in the parade, as will eight marching bands, 24 horses, two mules and a dog.
Fifty aircraft will fly overhead as well.
Last month, Army spokesman Steve Warren told reporters that the service welcomes peaceful protests, noting its motto is “this we’ll defend,” a reference to the service’s commitment to upholding democratic values.
“We’re not doing crowd control,” Warren said.
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The U.S. Secret Service and Washington officials said Monday they were tracking nine small protests but that they didn’t expect any violence.
“From a Secret Service perspective, it’s simply people using that first amendment right to protest because we’re not going to do anything with that,” said Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office. “But if that turns violent or any laws are broken, that’s when [the Metropolitan Police Department], Park Police, Secret Service will be involved.”
Still, the National Guard, including the District of Columbia National Guard and those from other states, will be activated but not armed.
Outside of Washington, progressive groups plan to hold protests against the Trump administration as the parade occurs, with the flagship “No Kings” protest occurring in Philadelphia.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
