HOLIDAY/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump said on Monday [7-1-19] that the Pentagon would put military tanks on display on Thursday [7-4-19] in Washington as part of his plans to turn the annual Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital into a salute to the country’s military prowess. The tanks will join an airborne display of the nation’s firepower, including a flight of Air Force One over Washington and a performance by the Navy’s Blue Angels jets. Mr. Trump, who is to speak at the celebration, has requested that the chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines stand next to him as aircraft from each of their services fly overhead and their respective hymns play on loudspeakers…Mr. Trump’s Fourth of July homage to the military sets up a cultural clash between the Republican president and a mostly Democratic city that has for decades celebrated America’s independence with almost no public participation by presidents of either party.”
–Michael D. Shear, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and John Ismay, “Trump Says Tanks Will Be on Display in Washington for July 4,” The New York Times online, July 1, 2019