Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) made it clear that he found Trump’s demand for a grand military parade to be something straight out of the Soviet Union and un-American.
Video:
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) calls Trump's demand for a grand military parade un-American. pic.twitter.com/XUmhEQBdk8
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 7, 2018
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Here was the exchange between All In’s Chris Hayes and Whitehouse:
Hayes: Final question, you talk about sort of places where there is unanimous compelled acclimation for the leader. The Washington Post just running a story in the last hour the president instructed the Pentagon, the Pentagon confirmed this to plan a grand military parade for him to, I don’t know, in his honor or for him to preside over. What do you make of that?
Whitehouse: Well, I think a lot of Americans remember images of the Soviet May Day parade that was not an image that we much associate with the United States of America.
A military parade for Trump is un-American
Trump can’t stop reminding people that his political role models are authoritarians who have no respect for democracy. It would be easy to look at the military parade as the latest bad idea from a shallow and neurotic president who needs constant affirmation and grand gestures in his honor, but it is more than that. There is a reason why US presidents don’t hold military parades because the country is not a military dictatorship.
Throughout history, military parades have been used by rules to intimidate their own citizens. There is nothing patriotic about a military parade. The United States was not built on the idea of military force. The demand for a military parade is just like Trump himself fundamentally un-American.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
