President Donald Trump is warning any would-be protesters planning to interrupt the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary celebration in Washington, D.C., that they’ll be “met with very big force.”
The parade June 14, which coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday and Flag Day, is set to feature thousands of police officers and security measures including metal detectors, anti-scale fencing, concrete barriers and drones overhead surveilling the crowd. It also comes as Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are locked in a standoff over the use of the National Guard and the U.S. military to help quell protests that have sprung up in Los Angeles against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps carried out at the president’s direction.
“This is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force,” Trump said June 10 in the Oval Office.
Billed as the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday parade, the celebration in the nation’s capital will feature Army equipment, musical performances and thousands of soldiers in uniforms past and present. Fireworks are scheduled to close out the festivities.
Trump’s remarks come as opponents prepare their own “No Kings National Day of Defiance” − or “No Kings” protests − at more than 1,800 sites nationwide. Indivisible, a progressive group, alongside a coalition of partner organizations, said it’s holding the events to counter Trump’s plans to “hijack” the Army’s legacy to “celebrate himself.”
There will be no planned “No Kings” protests for Washington D.C. Organizers said they intentionally avoided having a protest in the capital to avoid being cast as “anti-veteran.”
The largest protest is instead scheduled for noon ET in Philadelphia, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
“We made that choice to not feed into any narrative that Trump might want,” said Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin, “that we’re counterprotesting him directly or give him the opportunity to crack down on protesters.”
Last month, Trump said God had willed his participation in the “big big celebration.”
Trump, who lost the 2020 election, would have missed the event had he been elected to a consecutive second term. In his second term, Trump also is expected to preside over the FIFA World Cup in 2026, which the United States will co-host with Canada and Mexico, as well as the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I’m glad I missed that second term. Now look what I have,” Trump said. “I have everything. Amazing the way things work out. God did that.”
Contributing: Sarah D. Wire
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump: Protesters on Army’s birthday will be met with ‘heavy force’
