In a reminder that Trump is not wildly popular with the electorate, so much as unopposed by any effective political counterweight, groups of foreign tourists were more numerous than MAGA supporters among the 14 June parade’s early arrivals. A whole day of festivities had been arranged on the National Mall before the event itself. An army physical fitness contest, a gauntlet of exercise stations and obstacles involving 18 teams, had just taken place on one of the grassy lawns.

Among those presenting the awards was Michael Weimer, a sergeant major and Delta Force old-timer who had himself competed as a member of a five-man team of senior leaders around the age of 50 (they had placed ninth). ‘You guys need to up your game,’ he told the younger, slightly chubby soldiers assembled before him, soaked in sweat, some still out of breath. The lack of physical fitness among young Americans has limited the army’s ability to recruit new personnel in recent years.

Further on, I watched the 3rd Infantry Regiment, a ceremonial unit known as the Old Guard, spin and toss their rifles and bayonets to a smattering of languorous applause from a small crowd of South Asian tourists, ageing veterans and subdued Trump fans. What kind of fascism was this? Rather than the authoritarian spectacle that liberals had anticipated, the festivities seemed to be more a demonstration of political fatigue and civic apathy. Far from glorifying America’s military strength, they displayed the armed forces’ decrepitude, low morale and obsolescence.

There was, no doubt, good reason to worry about Trump’s despotic tendencies and willingness to use armed force to accomplish his political goals. After floating the possibility of cutting the national defence budget in half, Trump had reversed course by proposing to increase it to more than a trillion dollars for fiscal 2026 (October 2025-September 2026), up from an already mammoth $895bn in fiscal 2025.

Many of the almost 7,000 troops (…)

Full article: 1 627 words.