President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning ahead of Saturday’s military parade in Washington, D.C., stating that “any” protesters who show up will be “met with very big force,” a comment that has drawn sharp concern from civil rights advocates and legal observers across the country.
“We’re going to celebrate big on Saturday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, just after discussing his decision to send National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to suppress protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. “If any protesters want to come out, they will be met with very big force.”
The parade, planned to commemorate the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday. The display of military power comes just days after the president deployed armed forces to Los Angeles, and amid a wave of decentralized national demonstrations planned in opposition to his administration’s growing use of military force against civilian protests.
In a separate comment, Trump again equated protesters with hostility to the nation. “But this is people that hate our country,” he said. “They will be met with heavy force.”
The threats have provoked alarm among civil rights groups, especially given Trump’s lack of distinction between peaceful demonstrators and any who might commit violence or property damage. The president’s broad language—targeting “any” protesters—has sparked widespread backlash and renewed scrutiny of his administration’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.
The celebration itself is set to be one of the largest public military displays in recent U.S. history. According to Army officials, the parade will feature 28 Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker vehicles, and four Paladin self-propelled howitzers. Aerial elements include 50 military aircraft, and marching units will be composed of over 7,000 soldiers dressed in uniforms representing multiple eras of U.S. military history. In addition, eight marching bands, 24 horses, two mules, and a dog will take part in the spectacle.
“It’s going to be a parade, the likes of which I don’t know if we’ve ever had a parade like that,” Trump said. “It’s going to be incredible.”
He emphasized both the scale and historical reach of the event, saying, “We have many tanks. We have all sorts of new ones and very old ones from World War I and World War II.”
The parade is scheduled to culminate in a flyover and large-scale military demonstrations. Trump, speaking to troops at Fort Bragg earlier this week following a presentation from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 18th Airborne Corps, expressed pride in the scope of the celebration. “Saturday is going to be a big day in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “You know, a lot of people said we don’t want to do that. I say, yeah we do. We do want to show off a little bit.”
Outside Washington, however, thousands of Americans are planning to counter that message with coordinated demonstrations. Under the banner of the “No Kings” movement, more than 2,000 rallies are set to take place across the country on June 14, targeting what organizers describe as the Trump administration’s authoritarian power grabs and militarized crackdown on civil protest.
Organizers deliberately avoided holding a major rally in Washington itself, citing a desire to redirect attention away from the president’s spectacle.
“Instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity,” organizers said, “we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.”
The “No Kings” coalition, which includes progressive advocacy organizations such as Public Citizen, emphasized a commitment to nonviolence. “Organizers are trained in de-escalation and are working closely with local partners to ensure peaceful and powerful actions nationwide,” the coalition stated over the weekend.
Despite Trump’s comments, local and federal security agencies have struck a more measured tone. The U.S. Secret Service and Washington, D.C. officials confirmed they are monitoring nine small protests in the capital and currently expect no significant security threats.
“From a Secret Service perspective, it’s simply people using that First Amendment right to protest,” said Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office. “But if that turns violent or any laws are broken, that’s when [the Metropolitan Police Department], Park Police, Secret Service will be involved.”
Members of the D.C. National Guard and other state units will be activated for the event but not armed, according to officials.
In a May statement, U.S. Army spokesman Steve Warren defended the right to peaceful protest and reiterated that the military would not play a crowd control role. “We’re not doing crowd control,” Warren said again on Tuesday when asked by ABC News to confirm his earlier remarks. He cited the Army’s motto, “This we’ll defend,” as a commitment to democratic values, not domestic repression.
Still, Trump’s threats drew swift condemnation.
Public Citizen responded on social media by stating simply: “That’s a dictator.”
MSNBC host Chris Hayes noted that Trump was not distinguishing between violent actors and peaceful dissenters. “Worth stressing that he’s not threatening rioters or people who are violent or lawless but literally just ‘protesters’ with ‘very big force,’” Hayes wrote. “My strong instinct is that Trump’s threats against Americans’ First Amendment right to peaceably assemble are going to massively juice attendance at Saturday’s protests.”
With the parade set to unfold under the shadow of tanks and low-flying aircraft, many will be watching not just the show of power in the capital, but the response from Americans across the nation who say they are ready to defend democracy—not through force, but through peaceful resistance.
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