People congregate around a military vehicle parked on the National Mall on Thursday, ahead of a parade commemorating the Army’s 250th anniversary. (Rod Lamkey Jr. / AP)
Opinion Philip Bump The world sees America for what it is Two international surveys suggest non-Americans understand Trump better than Americans do. Yesterday at 4:45 p.m. EDT, 5 min
Any of a number of recent images plucked from American politics might serve as a distillation of President Donald Trump’s second term. Tanks moving through the streets of the capital, part of a parade planned for Trump’s birthday (and, secondarily, the Army’s).
Soldiers on the streets of Los Angeles to — in the words of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem at a news conference Thursday — “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership” of the elected governor and mayor.
And, of course, law enforcement pinning to the ground and handcuffing Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) at that same news conference, after the senator attempted to ask Noem a question.A popular strand of commentary has emerged in which the events unfolding in the United States are described as though they were unfolding in some remote, less traditionally stable nation. How would we view troops dispatched to a city controlled by the rival party, or a military parade in the national capital, if it occurred in, say, Brazil? Brazil and other nations have a longer record of governmental instability, of course, but that’s the point: Stability is not indefinite, and however slowly the earthquakes within our system are occurring, they’re still shaking American democracy.
