Trump threatens any protesters at military parade with ‘very big force’

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that protesters who assembled during a military parade he planned in Washington on Saturday for the Army’s 250th birthday would be met with “very big force” — a dark warning that made no distinction between peaceful demonstrations and violent confrontations.

In remarks from the Oval Office, Trump boasted about the “amazing day” he planned before saying that any demonstrators would be dealt with harshly.

“For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Trump said. “And 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.”

Trump’s comments came after the president spent several minutes praising his administration’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and Marines in response to protests that had broken out over the weekend in Los Angeles against federal immigration raids.

The episodes of unrest have included burned cars, concrete chunks hurled at officers and robberies at spots like an Apple store. Supporters of the California protests who oppose Trump’s immigration crackdowns have said the protests were largely peaceful, and that the episodes of violence have been amplified by Trump’s allies and administration.

Trump’s Oval Office remarks cited some of those violent images, and he maintained, without offering evidence, that the protesters were “paid insurrectionists.” He declared that Los Angeles had been “under siege until we got there,” although officials in the state — many of whom have spoken out against the violence — say he has only inflamed tensions by deploying the military.

Protests have already been planned across the country on the day of the parade, which is also Trump’s 79th birthday. Progressive groups are organizing demonstrations they are calling the NO KINGS Nationwide Day of Defiance intended to draw attention away from Trump, and to “reject corrupt, authoritarian politics in the United States.”

The groups have opted against an event in Washington, saying in a statement that Trump is seeking “a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday.” They added, “real power isn’t staged in Washington — it rises up everywhere else.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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