The White House is inviting everyone to our first military parade in history on June 14th which is also both Flag Day and President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. The parade though is to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th Anniversary Grand Military Parade on the National Mall!
The parade is to celebrate and honor our brave soldiers. It is both an America First public relations campaign to boost national pride as well as a recruiting tool to encourage our youth to think about serving in the military. It is the brainchild of President Donald Trump many feel is worthwhile.
The parade will kick off at 6:30 pm Eastern Time Saturday. The parade will take place on Constitution Ave NW between 15th Street and 23rd Street. Those who wish to attend in person should pre-register at the America250.org website.
Some 7,000 soldiers, 150 vehicles, and 50 aircraft (doing flyovers) will be in the parade. Over two dozen M1 Abrams tanks will be in the parade each weighing in at over 60 tons.
As of now, it appears no major broadcast networks intend to carry the hour long parade production however; Right Side Broadcasting and News Nation will be steaming the event in online media platforms live. Also, the U.S. Army reports the parade and other highlights from the military celebration will be livestreamed across U.S. Army social media platforms.
The day won’t be all sunshine and roses across America though. “No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance” protests are also being planned for Saturday as well. The website https://www.nokings.org/ offers local gatherings across America that day by entering your zip code. That feature did not appear work on their website as the entire website map of America offered no gatherings when I used their website. Also, interestingly, like so many other lefty websites, it does not note how the organization is funded.
This organization as well as 50501 both claim to only engage in peaceful protests and are refraining from protesting in Washington, D.C. itself the day of the parade.
While national left-leaning organizations promise 1,800+ protest sites across America Saturday, as of yesterday, Economic Times reported only about 42 locations across America in midday gatherings here:
“‘No Kings’ protests near me against Donald Trump parade: Locations, date, time, map and how to register” – Economic Times
Interestingly, lefty Christy Walton, Walmart heiress, took out full page newspaper ads to promote “No Kings” day on June 14th. Google AI reports; “Christy Walton is the widow of John T. Walton, who was one of the sons of Walmart founder Sam Walton. She inherited a significant portion of her husband’s fortune, making her a billionaire heiress.”
“More ‘No Kings’ Protests Are Planned Nationwide on June 14: What to Know” – Newsweek
CONCLUSION:
The left is using this as another excuse to launch a bogus attack on President Donald Trump. Some of the things they are saying constitute known misinformation which means they should all be carted off to the Joe Biden House of Corrections for the crime of misinformation, unless Elon Musk and DOGE defunded that now.
- They said the parade will cost $45 million. In fact, it will cost more like $30 million.
- They called it the “President Trump Birthday Parade” to feed his ego. The very title of the parade shows these people should be sent back to repeat high school history.
- They said it is foolish gesture. France, North Korea, Russia, and China are countries that regularly stage impressive military parade displays.
- They have said no soldiers want to participate in the parade. That is an outright lie.
Many of my family members have served in the military. Thankfully they all came home alive though not physically the same as going into service. I think President Donald Trump’s idea of a military parade is a good one. President Trump is a firm advocate of “Peace through strength,” and history proves this to be a truism.
And I got a little message for Christy Walmart to conclude this…
I met Sam Walton, her father-in-law founder of Walmart, when he opened his store in Plano, Illinois where I served as an elected alderman. We met at store #1003 February 3, 1987. I was one of the few there to recognize him because I had read up on him in magazines and newspapers as America’s newest billionaire.
Unlike his daughter-in-law, Sam was a conservative “America First” nationalist. He was a Ronald Reagan Republican.
I knew Sam drove a 1979 Ford F150 with over 100,000 miles on it at the same time I drove a 1976 Chevy C10 pickup with over 100,000 miles on it so we had that in common as a good conversation opener.
I can still remember our conversation of that day.
“Hey there Mr. Sam Walton… I am Plano alderman Mark Schwendau. Did you drive up here in your pickup truck to visit us after this long drawn out process?” (Plano had to compete with two neighboring towns to win his newest store.)
He smiled broadly in a dress white shirt with blue jeans. I was the first to know who he was and knew about his stubborn refusal to buy a newer vehicle. I pointed to my Chevy across the parking lot and said, “That’s my baby over there much the same as yours.”
I do not remember all we talked about but I do remember three things about that conversation:
After I shook his hand and introduced myself and asked about his truck, he pointed to about a half dozen gentlemen across the parking lot and said, “No, my truck is home. The suits over there made me fly up here into Chicago.” (In retrospect I am guessing at least one of those was Christy’s husband, John who would have been 41 then.)
I asked him if it was true he was going to start selling stripped down Ford compact cars for families to use as second “commuter cars”. He told me he had been working on the idea but it appeared the actual Ford dealers were going to block him.
I asked him if it was true he was an advocate of always providing American made goods over goods made cheaper in China and elsewhere. He told me, “As long as I am alive, that will be company policy.”
Sam Walton was the first and only billionaire I ever met in my life. He became a billionaire in 1985, we met in 1987, and he passed away in 1992 at 74.
People asked me later what it was like to meet and talk to him and I said, “A really nice guy and just as plain as day, unpretentious.”
Sam Walton would not approve of Christy Walton going against President Donald Trump and he would be royally pissed that her endorsement of the liberal left Democrats caused the Walmart Corporation to close so many stores in Chicago due to losses from lawlessness!
He would have been more upset about the black eye to the Walmart Corporation name rather than his bottom line and most importantly the needless hurting of people he so loved to serve. That was the Sam Walton I came to know.
He was also a fellow smartass and, were he alive today, I can imagine him asking Christy, “Did you ever notice how all of this shoplifting in flash mob smash and grab raids is occurring in Democrat run cities? Why do you suppose that is?”
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau
