U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 10, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that protestors at his upcoming military parade in Washington, D.C., will be met with “heavy force.”
“We’re going to be celebrating big on Saturday,” Trump said at the White House about the parade marking the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary.
“And if there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said, before repeating that threat twice.
“I haven’t even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force,” he said.
But security officials and the U.S. Secret Service, during a briefing Monday, said they were tracking about nine protests aimed at the parade, which is being held on Trump’s 79th birthday.
They said the number of protesters is expected to be much smaller than the number of people attending the parade.
The parade has drawn strong criticism from lawmakers in Congress, including some Republicans who question the event’s high price tag and optics.
The parade could cost up to $45 million, according to an Army spokesperson.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Tuesday that he is concerned about the message that the parade could send, NBC News reports.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Paul said. “I’m not sure what the actual expense of it is, but … we were always different than, you know, the images you saw in the Soviet Union and North Korea,” Paul said.
“We were proud not to be that,” he continued.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he would not “spend the money” on the event if it were up to him.
Trump’s warning about protests at the parade comes on the heels of his deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and about 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The state’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, and groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have fiercely opposed Trump’s deployments. Newsom sued Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday over the deployments and has asked a federal judge to block them.
Trump’s deployments will cost roughly $134 million, a Pentagon official told a House subcommittee Tuesday.