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My grandparents once lived near the campus of The Citadel, South Carolina’s military college, and they would often take their young son to watch the cadets’ weekly dress parade. This was more than 70 years ago, but the parade still takes place most Fridays during the school year and is even a tourist attraction in Charleston. It’s part of a tradition of military drills that date to Valley Forge.
The exposure to these young men (and now women) marching in their sharp uniforms and respectfully saluting each other was one reason that my late uncle grew up to be an officer in the U.S. Army. He was a Donald Trump supporter and would have loved Saturday’s military parade in Washington, D.C., unlike approximately half of America.
“Obscene,” “repulsive” and “sickening” were some of the pronouncements in the media, delivered without thought of the potential impact on the servicemen and women being honored at the event. The critics weren’t criticizing the soldiers who participated, of course, but President Trump, whom they saw as engineering the event to aggrandize himself on his 79th birthday. They could well be right on that point.
And yet what could have been a rare moment of national pride and unity devolved into split screens, finger pointing and name calling.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was among the few Democrats who deviated from the party line on the parade, posting on X that the parade displayed “the very best of us.”
Much of the anti-parade commentary ominously likened the event to parades in Russia and North Korea. Writing for The Washington Post, Max Boot said he arrived at the parade worried that “Trump would turn the Army parade into just another political pageant. Those concerns only grew when I saw how many of the spectators were wearing MAGA hats or shirts.”
But Boot, a self-professed “military history nerd,” confessed that he loved the parade, even the big tanks. “This was not a menacing, goose-stepping parade a la Moscow or Pyongyang,” he wrote, but servicemen and women “smiling and waving at the spectators and, in some cases, making heart gestures with their hands.”
In other words, it was the kind of a parade that America needed, promoting a patriotism based on love of country and countrymen, not love of a particular leader.
The optics weren’t great, many people have rightly pointed out, especially with it being Trump’s birthday, adding to the perception that it was a celebration of the president. But as Steve Beynon wrote for Military.com, the Army had planned this parade for more than a year. The permit had been taken out when Joe Biden was president.
And while the $45 million price tag is a legitimate cause for concern, especially given the budget slashing going on within the federal government, The New York Post reported that private companies, including Oracle and Amazon, had contributed to the cost. (Here again, Trump couldn’t win — he was criticized for using tax dollars and also criticized for accepting donations from sponsors.)
Writing for the American Enterprise Institute last month, senior fellow Kori Schake noted, “The strongest correlates to joining the American military are being from a military family or living near a military base. That suggests greater exposure to our military increases propensity to serve.”
This is important, Schake goes on to say, “Especially at a time when less than one half of one percent of Americans are in military service and predominantly live, shop, and worship on cordoned military bases, Americans have little exposure to the men and women who serve us in uniform.”
This is profoundly sad, given the importance of our military, past and present, and also given the many benefits of military life, including generous benefits and lifelong camaraderie.
Two years ago, Gallup told us that confidence in the U.S. military was in decline, even among Republicans, who historically have trusted the military most. Ipsos research released earlier this year found that although Americans hold veterans in high regard, most (55%) are reluctant to recommend military service to young people.
But there’s a catch: “Adults with greater knowledge about military service are significantly more likely to recommend service to young people (69%) than those with less (29%).”
In other words, the more you know about the U.S. military, the more you appreciate it. That should be great news for our military recruiters, and it seems reason enough to throw a parade now and then.
Tucker v. Trump
In a week in which Elon Musk apologized for feuding with Trump over social media, the president has a new gadfly: Tucker Carlson.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be so surprising, given their checkered history. Carlson once called Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer” in text messages revealed during a defamation suit. He also once texted of Trump, “I hate him passionately,” a quote that Moveon.org turned into a billboard.
But their relationship survived all that and grew stronger; Carlson even got a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in 2024. Some hoped for a while that he would be Trump’s VP.
But like Musk, Carlson has broken with Trump spectacularly, unhappy with what he considers the president’s complicity in Israel’s bombardment of Iran. He has exchanged sharp words with Mark Levin, who wants the U.S. to do more, and called Sean Hannity and Rupert Murdoch, among others, “warmongers.”
Asked about the rift, per The Hill, Trump told reporters, “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” On Monday, he called Carlson “kooky,” prompting one commentator on X to pronounce the death of their relationship.
It is a continuation of the intraparty cage fighting that we talked about here last week. And with Marjorie Taylor Greene now taking Carlson’s side, it’s not likely to subside anytime soon, to the delight of Democrats in all 50 states.
Recommended Reading
Jeremy Pope writes that America’s greatest gift to the world is “the set of ideas birthed between 1765 and 1800” and that we should honor soldiers not simply because they are soldiers, but because of the ideals that their service advances.
“There is nothing wrong with honoring servicemen and women. Sacrifice for America is part of what makes America great, and failing to recognize those men and women is worse than negligence — it is a civic sin. But the best reason to honor them must be to honor the ideas they pledge to protect.”
What is uniquely special about America?
Kevin Brown looks at a provision in the “big, beautiful bill” that would require universities to share the risk of student loan default. This would force colleges and universities to prize programs that promise graduates higher salaries, and devalue those that prepare students for a life of service.
“Institutions of higher education should be held accountable and strive toward greater affordability and access. But risk sharing or gainful employment proposals that distill accountability to commercial conditions risk misunderstanding the multiple dimensions of value faith-based schools offer and, further, effectively punishes them for fulfilling their mission.”
How the ‘big, beautiful bill’ misses the mark on faith-based higher ed
Betsy VanDenBerghe refutes the prevailing narrative about marriage and parenthood, described by singer Chappell Roan as “all parents are miserable.”
“No one should be stereotyped as selfish or feel ostracized for not having children, but a societal narrative that “all parents are miserable” is not only untrue, but dissuades young adults from participating in what many find the most rewarding part of life.”
Surprise! Married parents aren’t miserable — they’re America’s happiest adults
And here’s my response to the gut-wrenching images to which we were subjected last week in the hours after the tragic plane crash in India:
The Air India crash showed us the worst part of social media isn’t always the vitriol
Endnotes
Although I’m based in Boston, I get to visit my Salt Lake City colleagues every now and then, and I am always delighted to pass the Deseret News shop at the SLC airport. How lucky am I to work for a publication that has both an airport shop and its own marathon?
As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can email me at Jgraham@deseretnews.com, or send me a DM on X, @grahamtoday. I will not be running the marathon, thanks to a mild case of bursitis and a major case of inertia, but I will loudly cheer on any Pointers who do.
