According to biographer Michael Wolff, President Trump was reportedly quite disappointed with the parade held last Saturday in Washington, D.C., to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army and coincide with his 79th birthday.
Wolff told the Daily Beast Podcast that the American leader wanted to see a “menacing” show of force to celebrate the armed forces and, on the contrary, did not appreciate the festive atmosphere of the event. The president blamed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for this.
“He’s p—ed off at the soldiers,” Wolff said. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”
As thousands of soldiers flanked by tanks marched past the half-empty stands along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., social media users pointed out that they were marching out of step and that the atmosphere around them seemed to match the gloomy weather.
“He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this,” the president biographer added. “Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem. Trump, he keeps repeating himself. It didn’t send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise.”
The White House’s retort was not long in coming. Indeed, government officials called Wolff a “liar and a fraud.” “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast.
Despite many sources that said the contrary, at least publicly, Trump insisted that the parade was a “huge” success, even after it was overshadowed by “No Kings” demonstrations across the country, which drew millions of Americans protesting the president’s vast immigration program.
