Trump's Fragile Ego Won't Be Able To Handle The Reported Lack Of Interest In His Military Parade

Donald Trump's military parade is just days away. While the event is on the president's birthday, it was the Army's annual birthday party first. However, once Trump and his team had a say in the planning, the event became increasingly elaborate. The intended number of participants expanded exponentially: from 300 to 6,600. Not everyone is convinced that the spotlight is really on the military, either. "Trump is throwing himself a $30 million birthday parade just to stroke his own ego," Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth asserted on Instagram.

Unfortunately for Trump, it doesn't appear that potential crowd sizes are developing at the same pace as participants. People are already announcing their intentions to stay home, including Republican members of Congress. Politico queried 50 people, and for 43 of them, the allure of alternate weekend plans was more compelling. Pope Leo's also planning his own event that same day, which will no doubt further dilute people's attention

Another potential red flag is the lack of interest in accommodations. "I ran some room reservation requests for 13 -15 for cheap rooms that would not be available in a period of high occupancy," commented on poster on X. "I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty, nobody is coming to DC." Besides the possible lack of in-person attendees, Trump could be disappointed with the lack of TV coverage. While Fox News will devote extensive airtime to the event, other networks will confine coverage to their streaming services, so viewers can still tune into sports and favorite shows on broadcast/cable.

Some reports estimate a crowd size of 200,000 for the Army's birthday parade. However, it's not clear where this number come from, other than that's the same crowd size as a military parade held over 30 years ago. Estimates could also be skewed, since some people admitted to getting tickets with the intention of not showing up.

To compound the problem, it might literally rain on Trump's parade. Bad weather, especially thunderstorms, could deter otherwise enthusiastic potential attendees, and possibly even key participants. "If it rains Trump probably won't show up. We all know he hates being out in the rain," joked one person on X. Snark aside, uncooperative weather could help Trump save face. Trump has relied on ego-protecting excuses in the past to explain crowd sizes, like when he claimed photo ops were misinterpreted as disinterest.

Regardless of weather, ambiguity about the exact numbers could assuage any potential hurt feelings. Trump's not the only one fixated on crowd statistics, and this has led to changes in governmental policy. Official data on past events, like both of Trump's inaugurations, hasn't been collected by the National Park Service since 1997. However, it hasn't stopped other individuals from doing their own analyses. Trump may also weigh in with his own claims. Even if he's privately disappointed, he could still find a silver lining. "He'll still brag about it being the biggest military parade the US has ever seen," predicted on poster on X.