The parade is only part of the show

What do we do now, with reality catching up to a play-acting approach to governing?

The military parade in the nation’s capital 160 years ago, for a good cause. (Matthew Brady photo in the Library of Congress collection)

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Six weeks after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865, some 145,000 soldiers paraded past the White House over two days in a national celebration of victory. The troops were flanked by bands and banners. Trailing behind was a ragtag crowd that had accompanied the soldiers from the battlefield — freed blacks, laborers, adventurers — and some herds of livestock commandeered from southern plantations.

Historians say that what was labeled the Grand Review of the Armies wasn’t just a display of triumphalism, though. With the weary nation grieving its losses — both the war dead and the assassinated Abraham Lincoln — the untested new president, Andrew Johnson, hoped to strike a new mood in the capital while honoring the troops.¹

Unlike many European countries, America at age fourscore and nine didn’t have a tradition of big military parades, but others have since followed. On June 13, 1942, some 2.5 million people lined Fifth Avenue in New York City to witness a parade supporting military mobilization for World War II; a little less than four years later, a more subdued crowd showed up for a war victory parade. Washington hosted a National Victory Parade in 1991 at the conclusion of the 40-day First Gulf War, with 8,000 troops following Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf up Pennsylvania Avenue.²

This week’s parade in Washington is different from all of those. This event wasn’t created to celebrate a recent war victory or to bolster the national will for a looming challenge. Nor is it a bipartisan celebration of goodwill; in fact, it’s happening over the objections of many Democrats and without the authorization of Congress. And the expected pricetag of up to $45 million, which the Pentagon says it will cover, is unprecedented: The 1991 parade was organized and funded by a nonprofit group, which saved money by fielding 700 volunteers to help pick up parade-goers’ trash.³ (A poll this week found that 6 in 10 Americans say this parade is “not a good use” of taxpayers’ money.)

Most notably, the intent of this year’s pageant is dubious. Yes, June 14 marks the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, but celebrating that with a display of 28 tanks, scores of other ground vehicles, 50 aircraft rolling on flatbeds, dozens of helicopters hovering overhead and 6,600 troops passing a presidential reviewing stand on Constitution Avenue is a bit of extravagance surely related to another anniversary on the day: Donald J. Trump’s 79^th birthday. We know that this president loves pageantry, though perhaps not quite as much as he simply adores having honor lavished upon him.

To summon the line so memorably delivered on a similar occasion by the late Marilyn Monroe, “Happy birthday, Mr. President.” Better than a line of tanks, that.

Mind you, I’m not one to disparage the idea of parades, in general. In fact, I love a parade. I can’t count how many parade routes I marched as part of my sharp high school band or rolled along over the years on floats sponsored by the newspapers I edited. Just last week I walked the length of a local Pride Parade, thrilled to be an ally on a joyful day. That was one fun parade.

But Donald Trump’s grand military parade marks something else: It’s a distraction conveniently arriving as the president’s popularity is sinking and his policies are failing. It comes as the world teeters dangerously on the edge of widespread war and economic uncertainty. And, significantly, there is this: It reminds us of how thoroughly the work of the U.S. government is being debilitated by a focus on performance over substance.

So in the aftermath of the showiest event yet for our showbiz president, we have to be ready to present some alternative programming. I’ve got some ideas for you.

All politicians project images aimed at winning our allegiance to one degree or another, making it hard to tell what’s real and what they’ve concluded we want them to be. Theodore Roosevelt embraced what he called “the strenuous life” as he overcame a sickly childhood, and his physicality became a defining aspect of both his persona and his political philosophy. Ronald Reagan’s ability to convincingly deliver well-crafted lines was no surprise given his acting background; it’s easy to imagine movie roles with him as the genial-but-tough character that he portrayed in the White House. Did he shape policy based on thoughtful conservative values, or was he the 1980s’ ideal projection of what a conservative political figure would be like?

Donald Trump has taken the performative aspect of politics to a new level, one that goes far beyond his own presentation. It’s not just the fact that 23 current or former Fox News personalities now hold White House jobs, a mark of how much performance matters over competence to this president. Nor should we wonder at Trump’s admiration for such figures as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who traveled all the way to El Salvador to answer questions in front of a prison cell filled with dozens of shirtless, tattooed men who were allegedly Venezuelans deported from America. Noem clearly knows what the cameras like.

This sort of play-acting — did we forget the square-jawed, loose-lipped Secretary of Defense, a former weekend cable TV show host? — is no longer surprising. Anybody who pays much attention to real reporting understood what we risked by re-electing this reality TV star. Just before last year’s election, the former chief marketing officer for NBC, John D. Miller, offered an apology for his role in advancing Trump’s 14-season run on “The Apprentice” — which, Miller said, “did irreparable harm by creating the false image of Trump as a successful leader.”⁴ The apology came too late: An image of Trump that appeals to his partisans was created long ago, and humans resist challenges to their conclusions once their minds are made up.

During Trump’s first term, we shook our heads at his lies and marveled that more Americans weren’t horrified. Now, crucially, matters have grown more serious: Trump is has gone beyond just playing the character he fashioned when he moved from reality TV to political campaigns; now the whole dangerous world is the set as he acts out his fantasy life.

Like TV’s Lone Ranger, the actor Clayton Moore, who wore the mask in public long after his show had gone off the air, Trump is so fully invested in his character, with supporting actors likewise playing along, that we’re all now cast as extras in what’s certainly his show. The results are as wild as an unscripted improvisation.

Wars are raging in the Mideast and Ukraine without a clear American policy that could help limit the conflicts because Trump can neither abandon nor deliver on his cocky campaign pledge to quickly end the foreign wars. National economies are upended by the uncertainty caused by Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs, which he offers as a mark of his business acumen. Children are dying in Africa and America’s standing in the world is shrinking because the character known as Trump, eager for history to judge him an era-defining figure, is determined to radically redirect American foreign policy.

It’s not Trump’s fault, certainly, that so much of governing has devolved into role-playing. It’s also a function of how we get information, which for most people does not involve sitting down with a newspaper (or an emailed column) and reading accounts from well-informed journalists. Instagram’s short-form videos draw two billion active monthly users, including half the population of the United States; almost two-thirds of the internet users in the U.S. access YouTube daily. Those statistics underscore the fact that Americans are increasingly glued to quick-take videos that grab our attention, make an impression and then let us move on. That’s at the core of today’s information ecosystem. It’s a discouraging reality.

No wonder most people have only a superficial understanding of many of the complex issues facing the country. Consider this: The independent Congressional Budget Office estimates that the massive tax bill awaiting Senate approval would increase the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion; the White House says that’s based on an incorrect assumption, and that the legislation really would cut the deficit by $1.4 trillion.⁵ Try to imagine a snappy 30-second video that might explain those competing views and present what’s true, and you’ll grasp a key challenge confronting contemporary journalism — one hard to solve, yes, but imperative for the sector charged with delivering the information citizens need to exercise their rights.

And so shows being staged for a populace with a limited attention span become reality. In one episode, Trump sends National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles to project an image of toughness, but their presence can enflame passions and lead to a genuine crisis in the streets. In another, a crackdown on higher education aimed at thrilling anti-elite voters will seriously erode America’s scientific edge and undermine the economic engine that universities are throughout the country.

To this, add a parade aimed at giving America’s leader the same sort of birthday show enjoyed by authoritarians all over the world. It makes the sad point that America is, really, just like all the rest of them: Nothing exceptional here, folks; just another egotistical leader eager to show off his big toys. Take that, Vladimir and Little Rocket Man: the Don is back.

Our word “parade” is derived from a Latin word, “parare,” which means “to prepare.” Soldiers long ago marched in parades to prepare for battles they would enter in disciplined ranks. Their readiness was showcased to citizens to instill pride and unity.

Maybe the big Trump parade will do some of that. But, really, we ought to be thinking more about some parades of our own. The “No Kings Day” demonstrations planned in 1,800 locations across the country to coincide with Trump’s birthday parade are a terrific example. Consider the message: A nation can be stronger through the diversity of its communities than in the power that a single man wields in Washington.

Good news emerged on the eve of those parades, suggesting that the resistance to Trump’s posturing may be working: The New York Times reported that Trump has abruptly ordered a scaling back of his mass deportation campaign, by pausing arrests of immigrant workers in the agriculture industry, hotels and restaurants — sectors of the economy, of course, that are crucial to Trump’s political standing.⁶

And there was this: The latest Quinnipiac University poll found that 58 percent of voters wanted congressional Republicans to stand up to Trump more, and that less than 30 percent of Americans support the president’s signature domestic policy bill, that multi-trillion-dollar deficit-buster.⁷

Maybe it’s too soon to conclude that the audience is catching on to the difference between the show and reality. The star has a contract for seasons yet to come, and the show is unlikely to improve. But surely many of us looking at images of the great military parade will see it as only preparation, as the word originally suggested, not as an end of anything. And maybe we can help more people reach the conclusion that a government’s strength really isn’t in its hardware, but in its effectiveness, its compassion and its responsiveness to its citizens. That would be worth a real celebration.

1. https://www.nps.gov/cane/the-final-march-grand-review-of-the-armies.htm

2. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-military-parade-history-rare-last-military-parade/

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/06/10/on-the-mall-the-celebration-lingers/89f330fe-462e-457f-b8c4-c8162d82c6d5/

4. https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-10-16/we-created-a-tv-illusion-for-the-apprentice-but-the-real-trump-threatens-america

5. https://apnews.com/article/cbo-deficits-tax-cuts-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-64d7de49aef62ba07b7f6f45c1ca73d1

6. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-ice-raids-farms-hotels.html

7. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls.html

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ENDNOTE

THANK YOU for reading The Upstate American, and for joining us in the conversation about our common ground, this great country. As we together navigate these challenging times, I hope you’ll join us again next week — or send me a message with ideas you’d like to see us address.

-Rex Smith