US President Trump held a meeting with Polish President Duda at the White House, turning what was originally a routine welcome ceremony into a mini military parade.

When the two leaders looked up at the sky, eight US military aircraft flew over in succession: first four F-35s, then four F-16s, which formed a formation to honor the Polish pilot who had recently crashed.

It seemed like a commemorative gesture, but normally such an honor would only require a formation of four planes. Since the crash involved an F-16, four F-16s would have been sufficient. However, Trump deliberately added four F-35s, and from the visual arrangement to the rhythm and the final formation, it no longer felt like a simple diplomatic courtesy, more like a small-scale military parade.

Considering that Trump had just praised China's military parade, this sudden 8-plane formation inevitably raised questions. It seems that after watching China's military parade, Trump felt the urge to stage his own mini military parade on the occasion of the Polish president's visit to the United States.

Photo of the scene

In fact, Trump has always had a fixation on military parades.

During his first term, he was very fascinated by military parades.

In his view, military parades are not only a symbol of military honor, but also a representation of presidential authority, an embodiment of "I am in charge."

He once tried to hold a large military parade for Veterans Day in 2018, planning to involve 7,000 people and dozens of aircraft, but it was eventually canceled due to resistance from various parties.

He also imitated France in 2019 by holding a "Honoring America" event on Independence Day, turning it into a military exercise day. F-22, B-2, and Blue Angels all participated, but because of bad weather and traffic control, it ended up being unsatisfactory.

Even so, he still longed for the impressive scenes like those in China, believing that the US is the strongest army, yet never showing it, which he considered unreasonable.

However, what he really wanted was not to showcase the strength of the US military, but to have the camera focus on himself to add more support to his "winning" philosophy.

Trump

After returning to the White House, Trump finally got the opportunity to hold the grand military parade he had long yearned for — under the name of the 250th anniversary of the US Army, a formal military parade was held on June 14.

The day was Army Day, Trump's 79th birthday, and also Flag Day in the United States.

All the buffs related to "glory," "country," and "victory" were fully activated.

However, what was originally intended to be a dual show of patriotic celebration and personal coronation was severely hit by reality.

There were few spectators, public support was below 40%, and there was a nationwide "No Kings" protest movement, with over 1,500 cities holding demonstrations, condemning him for treating the military parade as a "coronation of a king."

The media was also merciless, calling this parade a self-indulgent act by Trump. Not only did it fail to boost morale, but it made people even more tired.

Looking at the parade itself, the weather was poor, the soldiers' steps were messy, their expressions were confused, and Trump sat on the reviewing stand with a stiff smile, turning it into a major disaster scene.

US Navy

But even after the disaster, Trump didn't plan to give up.

According to reports, he is currently pushing for another larger and more special naval parade, possibly featuring ship formations, sea-based weapon displays, or even flight and aircraft carrier coordination, trying to achieve a shocking comeback visually.

Foreign media revealed that this new parade project, nicknamed "Naval Giant Ship Show," might take place before the end of the year.

This clearly aims to rival China's military parade, including the one that just failed, as a way to gain the upper hand. However, it ended up as a laughing stock when compared, so he is now eager to regain face. Since the army had a disaster, this time he will go for the navy; just placing warships there would create a sense of power, and it should not result in a disaster... maybe?

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7546431757436895778/

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