Bizarre, Media, Politics

Did The Trump Team Really Want Tanks And Missile Launchers On Parade Before The White House?

2015_moscow_victory_day_parade_-_01donald_trump_president-elect_portrait_croppedAfter toasting President Trump and his Administration the best for a successful term of office, it did not take long to find my first criticism (about the same time as his predecessor). I was appalled to hear after the Inauguration that the Trump team wanted to have tanks and missile launchers added to the Inaugural parade like some homage to the North Korean “Dear One.” As someone who is an admitted die-hard traditionalist, I was truly shocked by the effort. I was in utter disbelief that the Trump team would want such an image — and a departure from our long-standing tradition. I still hope that this report is false because it would show a stunning lack of perspective and judgment. However, I have not been able to determine if the story is true. It appears based on one source and one site has pulled back from the initial story which appeared on Huffington Post and MSNBC. If this is a fake news story, I would like to see that confirmed and the culprits revealed. Either it is a shocking lack of judgment on the part of the Trump team in proposing the military display or the media in spreading this story. It is news either way. If false, I would have to hear soon from the Trump Administration. One learns in Washington that you have to stomp out false stories within the first 48 hour news cycle. We are past the cycle without a clear response from the Administration.


The Hill and other sites is reporting that the team proposed the tanks and missile launchers to the shock of military officials. First and foremost, the Trump people did not seem to consider what an over 100,000 pound tank would do the roads in the Capital. Second, the military is proud of the tradition of civilian leadership and the professionalism of their force. They tend to resist being put on show by politicians, even the president.

Flyovers have been long-established by tradition. It is just the image of a type of parade before Lenin’s tomb that would have rested badly with many of us.

Trump’s own comments seemed to reinforce the story when before the Inauguration he said “Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country. And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military.”

That does not necessarily mean that he wanted to include a Soviet-like display at the Inauguration and I sincerely hope that he (and his team) did not want such a display. We are all proud of our military but I am most proud of its history of adherence to civilian leadership and its professionalism. This is not the image that they want and it is not the image that most Americans want of our military. However, as my kids constantly tease me about, I am a sucker for military marching bands and formations. I love to watch our soldiers and sailors in formation and to hear their amazing bands. The objection is only to parading of massive weaponry which has long been a signature of our enemies from the Soviet Union to China to North Korea to Iran.

Obviously there are more important policy issues to discuss but I would be curious as to whether this story is true and that such a request was actually made to the military and refused, as reported by Huffington Post.

What do you think?

98 thoughts on “Did The Trump Team Really Want Tanks And Missile Launchers On Parade Before The White House?”

  1. There were several in his “inauguration” post yesterday that stated that. I don’t recall their names.

    1. Give me a good ol’ military funeral any day and the Brits are the best at it. Find me an eye without a tear when the cranes get involved:

  3. Several of Turley’s regular contributors vowed to leave his blog yesterday. This may simply be red meat to keep them onboard.

  4. Mespo, To answer your question, the man on the left was the President made famous by Chevy Chase.

    If you want to understand history and politics one has to appreciate irony. It’s clear this fake news about missile launchers came out of the left wing fake news machine. They have Captain Renault expressing “shock” @ fake news while their presses spin it out daily.

  7. Professor,

    With all due respect, you should have confirmed the veracity of this story before publishing it. We already have enough “fake news” such that crows are becoming an endangered species.

  9. JT, first of all, what “Top BLAWG 100” site needs to publish this sort of horse$hit? I truly hope someone hacked your blog because this reflects very poorly on your judgment.

    Let’s start with what we did NOT have and then work backwards: tanks or missile launchers.

    If your perceived dictator Trump wanted what you are regurgitating then he would have had it. If he wanted it but the “team” talked him out of it then he’s not much of a dictator. If he wanted it, his team wanted it, but it was dismissed because of optics or damage to the streets, then it would have been verifiable. If fake news is reported to try on day 1 to damage this President, then you would not be able to independently verify it and you would expect to see it on the very “news” sites that would report such rubbish.

    Perhaps it’s just a slow news day. I suspect in the near future Trump and his so called team will provide enough real news for scrutiny that you won’t need to be wallowing in the mud with the rest of the fake news hacks.

    1. Oly, what am I missing? It would be hard to wrap the sentences of this post in more conditionals without making it virtually unintelligible.

      If this is a fake news story, I would like to see that confirmed and the culprits revealed. Either it is a shocking lack of judgment on the part of the Trump team in proposing the military display or the media in spreading this story. It is news either way. If false, I would have to hear soon from the Trump Administration. One learns in Washington that you have to stomp out false stories within the first 48 hour news cycle. We are past the cycle without a clear response from the Administration.

      All manner of conditional, all manner of pointing out this could be fake news, and very sage advice on Trump’s behalf at the end.

      Also, I can’t see the first four sentences of this post, which may well have been posted early in the morning, followed in the very next sentence by an explicit wish this be fake news, as meriting the presumption that Turley has somehow torn down years of remarkable impartiality and fair mindedness available at a glance through the archives.

      My picking on you is from surprise; it is an opinion and I realize you may have a legitimate argument.

      2. “I was appalled to hear after the Inauguration that the Trump team wanted to have tanks and missile launchers added to the Inaugural parade like some homage to the North Korean “Dear One.” As someone who is an admitted die-hard traditionalist, I was truly shocked by the effort. I was in utter disbelief that the Trump team would want such an image — and a departure from our long-standing tradition. I still hope that this report is false because it would show a stunning lack of perspective and judgment. However, I have not been able to determine if the story is true.”

        BB,
        That is the order in which Turley chose to begin his story. Had he begun with the last sentence and then said, “I would find it appalling…” then that would reflect a different outrage. He wasn’t going for outrage on the fake news angle, he was enabling the outrage as if the news was true and leaving it to his blog to argue the fake news angle. It was so out of character for him that I was appalled at his reckless pandering to those opposed to our President. It was though he was telling them there is no need to leave his blog; this would remain a safe space for them.

  10. What about a display of military with marching soldiers carrying guns and war planes instead of tanks?

    2. Placing DDT and Roosevelt in the same sentence is of such unacceptable bad taste that you should seriously sit down think and cry your eyes out. There is no comparison. Roosevelt was the greatest President of the last Century and certainly one of the greatest in American history. DDT marks the end of American democracy and the cementing of oligarchical tyrants.

  11. If ever there was a President elected due to fake news, fakery in general, lies, slander, misinformation, and bluster, DDT is it. This past election has seen the tipping point where the substance that should decide the Presidency has abruptly changed from handshaking, backslapping, drivel to an out right circus of mob inciting belching. The Carnival Barker in Chief DDT created an entire campaign using fake news, lies, slander, misinformation, and bluster. One is reminded of Mussolini when one watches DDT. Mussolini did do some good. He made the trains run on time. He stopped rampant corruption in Industry and government and replaced it with; well. He created a modern transportation infrastructure for Italy, etc.

    DDT may or may not have pondered having tanks and missile launchers at his parade. That is not important. What is important is that he is saying a few things that everyone feels: cleaning house in Washington, taking on big pharma, and adjusting disadvantages to level the trade playing field globally. These are complaints addressed with promises that pull at the patriotic heartstrings of almost all Americans. However, DDT is promising to gut decades of advancement and seems to be taking the same formula as two of his failed predecessors, Reagan and Bush. Both Reagan and Bush lowered taxes and increased spending. Both Presidencies were followed by lengthy recessions. The tech revolution saved us from the mess created by Reagan. Obama saved us from an even greater mess created by the three stooges. There is also the decades long deterioration of the American manufacturing situation. The reasons underlying all of these failures has been division, division between corporate, labor, and government, division caused by an us or them mentality. In countries such as Germany, Denmark, and other European nations where the holy trinity of government, labor, and corporate combine to the advantage of the people, America has an example of how to fix its problems. Yet it goes for the bluster and elects another ‘do it over night’ goofball.

    DDT has already violated the law and tradition. His secretary of defense was not out of the military the required seven years. Now a Republican congress will have to vote to bypass the law. Mattis may be the best man for the job and this may be an astute move on the part of DDT. However, more than anything this illustrates the hypocrisy of the right. If Obama had done anything remotely resembling this he would have been pilloried unrelentingly. DDT is cementing his position of supreme commander. DDT has appointed more retired generals than any predecessor. Generals know how to take orders. DDT has appointed more billionaires. DDT and billionaires subscribe to the same philosophy concerning where the money should go. DDT has appointed more people who know next to nothing about their posts. The design is of the man, by the man, for the man. Perhaps America needs a benevolent despot. Throughout history when democracy has been tried and failed, as it is failing here in America, the people have allowed oligarchs and invited despots to take over. The formula is as old as society, thousands of years old. Yet each time the people, especially those who are incapable of viewing mankind beyond the distance between the couch and the big screen, truly believe that this is unique and will fix every thing.

    DDT was elected to the Presidency through mob inciting tactics and by mob mentality. For a mob to develop there must be some element of a reason. There is much more than ‘some’ element of a reason to be frustrated regarding the dysfunctional American system of politics. The frustration morphed into a mindless mob and its leader is still rampaging down the street, noose in hand. We’ll get some trains running on time. There will be some adjustments to global economics. And, perhaps some national infrastructure will be addressed. However, America is now a product of the mindless mob.

        1. Please return to BC and give us all a break. You rant the same thing over and over.

    2. The Henny Penny predictions posted at 9:31AM also include some expedient historical revisionism,
      There are fairly standard definitions of recession. If everyone felt free to make up their own definitions, then everyone is “free” to define “lengthy recessions” as it suits them.
      There was a 16 month recession early in Reagan’s first term (1982-1983).
      On the heels of the Carter administration.
      The so-called “lengthy recession” following the Reagan Administration lasted for 8 months in the early 1990s.
      The stock market “dot.com crash” started in March 2000…..10 months before Bush 43 took office.
      The 2001-2002 recession started one year later, in March 2001….two months after Clinton left office.
      So if you want to play that game about administrations that were “followed by lengthy recessions”, it works both ways.

  12. TRump is the epitome of Berte Bott’s Every Flavour Beans…
    you never know what you’re going to get.

  14. Kinda surprised your printing this especially since you say your unable to determine if the story is true and sources pulling back. If it was/is confirmed I’m sure we would all agree that it’s not the place or time to display military hardware.

  15. One more thing. With almost ~~900~~ US military bases around the world in over 130 Nations.
    Putting out a little steel and brass in our parade is the least of our worries.

  17. The opposition has been lying so heavily the last year and 1/2 including the RINOS, that its really hard to verify anything. I can imagine the ‘rumor’ started when they saw the Vietnam Vets paraded the old equipment used in Vietnam, during the parade. Which Trump wanted the military and the American people INCLUDED in the country’s Big Day.

  19. Snopes says uncorroborated and hence no evidence. Down at the courthouse we call that unproven. More unsourced fake news from the Left. I always consider the source of it and HuffPo is propaganda central.

    1. Fortunately we elected someone against fake news. I wonder how his investigative team in Hawaii is doing. Amazing stuff they’re finding.

      2. Trump’s BFF, Dick Morris, is now heading up the National Enquirer. Between that, Breitbart, and infowars, the Trumpies will have control of fake news and that is what they want.

  20. Trump changes his mind every other minute so who knows. Seems like he wants to be a military dictator but he changes his mind so often that we will likely end up with anarchy.

    2. A woman from Chile told me that Trump reminded her of Pinochet. I told her that I thought no because Pinochet was general. and Trump was a six time draft dodger that actually knows little about the military. I do hope that the generals on his staff can steady the ship. By that I mean Mattis and Kelly and not that whack job Flynn

      2. and Trump was a six time draft dodger that actually knows little about the military.

        The term ‘draft dodger’ does not mean what you fancy it means.

        Trump received a student deferment during the Advisory War in VietNam (when less than 1% of America military manpower was deployed there). It was renewed three times. In 1968, he received a temporary medical deferment for a minor defect in his foot. These were not rare and about 12% of a typical age cohort received one. You could be recalled for another physical in as little as 90 days. Nineteen months later, the first draft lottery was held, applying to men born after 1943 and before 1951 who had not yet served. Trump’s lottery number was fairly high, so he was never recalled for another physical.

        A draft dodger is someone who undertakes odd evasive maneuvers contrary to law or games the system in ways which generate a rare dispensation from service obligations. That describes Bill Clinton’s maneuvers which allowed him to shirk his ROTC service obligations or Bernie Sanders hiring a lawyer to press a bogus conscientious objector claim (and gumming up the process successfully enough that he ran out the clock on his service obligations). A draft dodger is not someone who takes advantage of a deferment authorized in statutory law and which hundreds-of-thousands received every year.

        If you had any integrity, you would stop lying, stop impugning the character of others, and develop a consistent set of standards to evaluate the conduct of others. You won’t, because your character actually does stink.

    3. My guess is that the the Trump administration inquired about the use of military equipment in the parade. Someone in the military was not pleased and leaked it to a media outlet who ran with it. The military ultimately refused the request so that put an end to it for now. Just sayin…….

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