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Yeah, you know, I'm not actually American and I don't pay homage to any army. And I hope you didn't truly conclude from my post that this parade bullshit is the only thing I dislike about Trump, or that due to a lack thereof somehow I approved of Bush? Come on, even you know that's just a poor straw man.
That said, I don't disagree at all with the other stuff you're saying, you are absolutely right. I'm just telling you that no normal (and by normal, I don't necessarily mean good!) leader (i.e. one who is not a megalomaniac, a narcissist or a (wannabe) dictator) would demand a military parade for their birthday. Honestly not. And even if you don't care because it's "symbolic," you should still care because it shows you the type of person he is. The fact that it's "also the army's 250th birthday" is irrelevant, because it's irrelevant to Trump. HE wants a birthday parade for HIS birthday. He thinks he deserves it. He thinks his birthday is worth a 100 million dollars and he doesn't give a fuck that the tax payers are footing the bill.
Trump sees himself as the institution. That's the whole point. The U.S., that's him. The government, it's him. L'État, c'est moi.
Now if it were me I'd abolish military parades completely, because imo it's just a waste of money. But the fact that Trump wants one for himself is just another page out of his Dictator handbook.
So if you already have a negative opinion of his character, it reads as demonstrating a negative aspect of his character.
Don't get me wrong, you're right about his motivations, but it's still based on personal interpretation. He's not explicitly saying it's about himself. And it's a reasonable interpretation, but if someone doesn't see him that way already, this won't convince them. This sort of plausible deniability is part of Trump's MO, he wants to be criticized over such non-substantive issues, because it makes it look like it's the most severe criticism people have of him, and it allows him to control the narrative and draw attention to the parade, which the average person will probably not have a problem with, because people like parades.
Instead of taking the bait and freaking over every random, forgettable news cycle, it's better to keep criticism focused on things that have a material impact on people's lives, such as tariffs and deportations. Deportations in particular are much more of an indication of fascism than a parade is - people are being abducted off the streets and taken to black sites with no due process or oversight. If Trump wasn't doing shit like that that actually affects people's lives, he could dance around however he likes and I wouldn't mind.
Maybe I'm just a spoilsport, but my hatred for Trump is disciplined. I don't see any reason to freak out every time he sneezes. I'd rather focus on the important, unambiguously bad things that he's doing.
I think we agree on this pretty much, but what you saw as a freak-out was just me pointing out that this parade stuff is typical dictator shit (on top of all the other typical dictator shit). He's bad enough without the parade, it's just emblematic.
Honestly? I don't think anyone is going to be convinced of how bad Trump is anymore. Anyone who could be convinced probably already is. More people deported, a parade, more tariffs, more departments dismantled, imperialistic rhetoric, whatever. Too many people have already accepted all this, accepted too much. I doubt any of his followers can still be persuaded. What needs to happen is those cowards in congress need to step up and do something about it.