Trump's Parade of Power, Protests in the Streets, and the Fight to Save the Republic

Where tanks roll and tantrums reign, and the Constitution is treated like it’s printed on a cocktail napkin.

The streets of Los Angeles are still under military occupation. ICE raids have turned neighborhoods into war zones. Protests have now spread to more than a dozen cities, including red states, and a paranoid birthday boy in the White House has promised to meet dissent with “very big force” during his military cosplay parade this Saturday. Trump is literally using Marines and tanks to celebrate himself while threatening Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights.

This is where we begin: a parade of authoritarianism wrapped in patriotism, powered by fear, and aimed squarely at democracy.

In California, the protests have now entered their sixth straight day, and with nearly 5,000 federal troops deployed, the scale of the response is wildly out of sync with the supposed threat. Roughly 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines have been stationed in Los Angeles, transforming parts of the city into a militarized stage set. And yet? Fewer than 300 arrests.

Let that sink in: nearly 5,000 troops, $134 million in taxpayer money, and all for a few city blocks of unrest that were already winding down before the tanks arrived. The payoff doesn’t pencil. The goal was never public safety, it was submission, theater, a live-action intimidation campaign meant to send a message to immigrants, organizers, journalists, and anyone else who might dare to step out of line.

What began as resistance to mass ICE raids, where agents reportedly jumped out of unmarked vans in heavily Latino neighborhoods, detaining workers and even a nine-months-pregnant U.S. citizen, has now become a sustained uprising. Protesters are not just calling for immigration reform; they’re defending the right to exist without military occupation.

Federal agents have deployed tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs. A prominent union leader was detained and later released. Families have been separated. Children disappeared. Even horses have been injured.

And still, the protests continue because everyone understands what this is. This is about domination and stripping away the sovereigny of a blue state. And when you spend nine figures to suppress a handful of demonstrations in a city already managing its own response, you’re not securing peace, you’re staging authoritarianism on a national broadcast.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, far from backing down, is publicly calling this what it is: an unconstitutional seizure of state authority for the purpose of terrorizing immigrant communities and silencing protest.

“What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before... Instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records... this administration is pushing mass deportations, indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families...”

Then came Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who apparently couldn’t resist inserting himself into the chaos with a helpful offer to send the Florida State Guard to Los Angeles, as if Gavin Newsom had misplaced his dictatorship.

Newsom’s reply? “We declined Governor DeSantis’ attempt to inflame an already chaotic situation made worse by his party’s leader.”

So now, in case you missed it, we have coastal governors trading blows across a continent over which paramilitary force gets to occupy LA. You know, just a normal Wednesday in a functioning democracy.

Meanwhile, Trump was at Fort Bragg, where he stood in front of active-duty troops and egged them on to boo the media and the City of Los Angeles. Yes, the same LA they swore an oath to protect. This is now performative authoritarianism, the political equivalent of stomping on the flag and calling it love.

If you were wondering whether all this political theater, ICE raids, tank parades, FEMA dismantling, and Guantanamo expansions, was at least successfully distracting the public from Trump’s legislative failures… think again.

The administration’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB), a bloated, duct-taped Frankenstein of policy cruelty, corporate giveaways, and constitutional vandalism, is polling like a lead balloon wrapped in a Confederate flag. According to the latest Economist/YouGov poll (June 6–9), only 31% of Americans support it, while 49% oppose it outright. Among independents, that disapproval spikes to 57%. Even among Republicans, where this thing was supposed to be gospel, support clocks in at a tepid 41%, with nearly 30% unsure what’s even in it.

That’s not just bad, that’s “the dog ate my messaging strategy” bad.

The BBB was sold as Trump’s legislative legacy: a sweeping policy overhaul packed with Trumpist priorities, mass deportation powers, FEMA privatization, the gutting of regulatory protections, and vague calls to “restore patriotic education.” Instead, it’s landed like a sandbag to the face of public opinion.

Turns out, when you cobble together oil exec tax breaks, federal preemption of state law, and line-item spite toward your political enemies, people start asking questions. Like: What is this even for? Who benefits? And why are ICE agents now raiding meatpacking plants like they’re special ops?

Some of the worst-performing provisions include:

• “Streamlining patriotic education”: Supported by just 22% of voters, opposed by 61%, including 43% of Republicans, a clear sign that nobody wants a federally mandated history curriculum ghostwritten by Steve Bannon.

• Cuts to Medicaid “for border enforcement reallocation”: Opposed by a whopping 63% of voters, including key swing demographics in states already bracing for disaster season.

• Disaster relief block grants conditioned on immigration cooperation: Supported by just 27%, with 54% opposed, and labeled “vindictive and extortionary” by even some conservative-leaning independents.

Even Fox News has gone quiet on the BBB, awkwardly skipping it in favor of segments about deep-state satellites and whether Joe Biden is technically alive. According to media tracking, more Americans now say they’ve heard about the bill from memes and satire than from any official source. When your signature legislation is more recognizable as a TikTok punchline than a governing agenda, you’ve officially lost the narrative.

As one GOP strategist (speaking off-record, probably while drinking) put it:
“It polls like if the PATRIOT Act and a gas station Bible had a baby, then left it at a detention center.”

Even within MAGA ranks, the reaction is largely confusion and apathy. Not hatred, just a blank stare and a shrug. And for a regime built on total message discipline, that’s political heresy. The BBB was never designed to solve problems, it was designed to signal dominance. A legislative prop for authoritarian vibes. A parchment throne for the king to pretend to sit on.

So while Trump parades down Constitution Avenue in a tank like he’s conquering Fallujah, the bill that was supposed to be his crown jewel is cratering in real time. Not that anyone in the White House seems to care. In Trumpworld, laws are for appearances. Power is what you wield without asking.

Bottom line: The public hates it. The polls confirm it. And the regime? They’re already moving on to the next distraction.

As Trump prepares for his Saturday parade, timed, of course, to his own 79th birthday, he warned that any protest would be met with “very big force.” This is not subtle, nor is it legal. And it is not remotely normal.

It’s the First Amendment with an asterisk: Free speech unless it hurts Trump’s feelings. If Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin had a baby, and that baby threw a birthday party with tanks, this is what it would look like.

While real constitutional crises explode in the streets, Trump has decided to unilaterally “restore” the names of seven U.S. Army bases that had previously honored Confederate leaders. But this time, they’re renamed for soldiers with the same names, a Delta Force Robert E. Lee instead of the general who waged war on the Union.

“We won a lot of battles out of those forts,” Trump said. “It’s no time to change. And I’m superstitious.”

Ah yes, nothing says military strategy like astrology and nostalgia for secession.

And in case you were worried this regime couldn’t get more absurdly cruel, Trump also announced plans to phase out FEMA after this hurricane season. Going forward, disaster relief will be handled directly by the White House. You know, just what you want in a Category 5 storm: waiting for a convicted felon to decide if your state deserves sandbags.

“If they can’t handle it, they shouldn’t be governor,” Trump said, apparently forgetting that Louisiana’s $18 billion budget once required $78 billion in FEMA aid just for Hurricane Katrina.

Also worth noting: California sends more in federal taxes than it receives, effectively subsidizing the very red states Trump now plans to leave twisting in the wind, literally. So the state under federal occupation is also the one bailing out Trump’s electoral base, even as he militarizes against it. Call it taxation without representation with a side of targeted retaliation.

While Trump plays warlord, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is busy announcing the EU’s 18th sanctions package against Russia, including bans on Nord Stream pipeline transactions, a lower oil price cap, a new shadow fleet crackdown, and a push for a real, unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

“Strength is the only language Russia understands,” von der Leyen said, while Trump blames Ukraine and rolls tanks through DC.

So while real leaders target aggressors with economic power, Trump is using military force to threaten Americans who dare to wave a protest sign during his birthday bash.

Oh, and in case you missed the latest act in Trump’s trade theater, the White House spent two days spinning its “breakthrough” with China as a major victory. The foreign press and financial markets? Not so impressed.

What Trump called a “done deal” is, in reality, a nonbinding framework to maybe revisit a prior framework that was supposed to be finalized last month.

As one analyst put it: “We’ve achieved a deal to activate the consensus to negotiate a deal that we all agreed to agree upon last month.”

So yes, the stock market yawned. The tariffs remain. And the global economy is still treating the U.S. like that kid in the group project who always shows up with a broken crayon and a list of demands.

And just for flavor, because no week teetering on the edge of authoritarian cosplay would be complete without a side of woo-woo apocalypticism, let’s not forget Tulsi Gabbard’s uncanny PSA from Hiroshima.

The video, dropped unceremoniously in the dead of night like a Q drop with better lighting, opens with a somber, filtered montage of devastation and reflection. Tulsi, voice hushed and heavy, speaks about nuclear peace and moral urgency in a cadence that’s less political and more prophetic. She’s not giving a speech so much as conducting a séance. Part oracle from Dune, part grief counselor for the spiritually disillusioned, part doomsday influencer selling prepper chakras on Etsy.

The aesthetic? Deep Vibe State. Sepia tones, misty forests, aching piano chords, and a direct-to-camera delivery that says: “I know things you don’t, and the real war is for your soul.” It’s the uncanny valley between militarized nationalism and yoga-pants diplomacy, where the word “peace” is just a soft pillow wrapped around a slow-burning paranoia.

And that’s the trick. The whole production functions less as a call for disarmament and more as a coded warning, a kind of spiritualized deep-state narrative that casts America not as a democracy in peril, but as a fallen empire haunted by its karma. The vibe isn’t “we can fix this.” The vibe is “we must awaken.” There’s always a looming threat, nuclear war, yes, but also the implication that shadowy elites want this war, that only a small band of enlightened insiders (Tulsi included) are capable of bringing it to an end.

In that way, it doesn’t challenge authoritarianism, it mystifies it. It pulls the viewer into a passive state of dread, not civic action. And for a growing segment of politically unmoored Americans, that feels like truth.

So yes, while Trump is threatening protesters with tanks, RFK Jr is gutting the CDC, and DeSantis is offering paramilitary aid across state lines, Tulsi is busy curating her aesthetic of collapse, not just predicting the end, but preparing to be its spiritual guide.

It adds one final layer of surrealism to a week already bursting with dystopian energy. In a world where fascism is loud and kitschy, Tulsi brings the ambient soundscape of authoritarianism, quiet, stylized, and creepily soothing.

The divide has never been starker. One side is pushing tanks, threats, and retribution. The other is fighting to hold the line, with courts, with protests, with law, and sometimes just with decency. Saturday’s parade may roll through DC like a Roman triumph, but let’s not forget what’s being celebrated: power for power’s sake, a spectacle meant to scare Americans into silence while a convicted felon throws himself a birthday party backed by armored personnel carriers.

But the country isn’t buying it. Not quietly, not anymore.

From Los Angeles to Tallahassee, from Omaha to Boston, Americans are rising up. And this Saturday, as Trump rolls tanks through the capital, “No Kings” rallies will be held across the country. Not to match his pageantry, but to reject the premise entirely.

Because the true resistance isn’t just about opposing Trump. It’s about reclaiming the republic from the ruins of performative authoritarianism. It’s about remembering that patriotism is not blind obedience, and that democracy doesn’t come from a parade ground, it comes from the people who refuse to kneel.

So find a rally. Bring your voice. Bring your body. Bring a sign that says what needs to be said:
No King. No Guard.

See you in the streets.