Nearly 7,000 troops, tanks and parachute jumps: Army confirms military parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday
(Lightvision, LLC/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Army is planning a historic parade through the streets of Washington, D.C., on June 14 that will coincide with and be part of the Army’s long-planned 250th celebration.
The parade will involve some 6,600 soldiers, tanks and infantry vehicles, helicopter flyovers and parachute jumps, according to several people familiar with the planning effort, and will also occur on President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
“The Army is celebrating its 250th Birthday with multiple events leading up to June 14,” the Army said in a statement Friday evening. “The national level celebration will include a spectacular fireworks display, a parade, and a day-long festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The festival will feature displays of Army equipment, military demonstrations, musical performances, and a fitness competition.
“Given the significant milestone of 250 years, the Army is exploring options to make the celebration even bigger, with more capability demonstrations, additional displays of equipment, and more engagement with the community,” it added. “Parade planning is actively underway, and we anticipate approximately 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, and 6,600 Soldiers to highlight the Army’s 250 years of service to the nation.”
Officials said earlier Friday that the parade had been a possible add-on but had cautioned that no final decisions had been made. The Associated Press first reported details involving the latest plans.
The timing and White House involvement in planning efforts have stoked speculation that Trump is using the Army’s birthday as an excuse to get the kind of grand military parade he wanted during his first term in office. That event was scrapped after estimates topped $90 million.
The cost for this year’s June 14 parade is unclear, officials said, but it will likely be steep. The event will require involvement from several federal agencies, including those requiring security. The Army plans to have soldiers from each of the its 10 divisions represented in the parade, according to a U.S. official.
Earlier this year, city officials expressed concern that heavy vehicles such as tanks would tear up the roads and noted the city would require significant reimbursement to fix any damaged infrastructure.
The tanks would not be allowed to cross the bridges from Virginia into Washington, D.C., only allowing them to operate inside the city along certain roads, according to one official familiar with the planning.
Last month, the Army confirmed the possibility of a parade but called it pre-decisional.
Agents from ICE and various Florida law enforcement agencies make arrests near Miami, Florida this week. Image via ICE
(MIAMI) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and law enforcement from the state of Florida have arrested 780 migrants who are in the United States illegally in a four-day operation beginning Monday, according to statistics obtained by ABC News.
The operation, dubbed “Operation Tidal Wave” uses ICE’s 287(g) authority, which allows for state and local law enforcement agencies to be deputized and to arrest those in the U.S. illegally. State and local agencies allow for ICE to be in jails and on task forces, according to the agency.
“I think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it’s the first of its kind,” Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told ABC News. “It’s one that not only we’ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations, which are all the enforcement arms of ICE, but we’re also using all our 287(g) partners in the state of Florida. We’re using state, local and county law enforcement agencies to assist us in our operations.
“So this is one of the first large-scale missions we’ve done like this ever,” he added. “We brought a ‘whole the government’ approach with cooperative jurisdictions that want to help ICE secure communities in neighborhoods and remove public safety threats from our neighborhoods.”
The partnerships are a “force multiplier,” he said.
“State troopers, local police officers, county sheriffs — they’re our eyes and ears,” he said. “They encountered these criminal aliens out and about during their regular duties, and they’re able to go ahead and identify those public safety threats for us.”
ICE and officials from Florida law enforcement, which includes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, arrested 275 people in four days with final orders of removal — meaning they can be removed from the country in short order.
Madison Sheahan, who serves as the ICE deputy director, told ABC News that the partnerships will continue.
“We’ve seen historic partnerships with the state of Texas that has been going on and being able to expand. We’ve seen historic partnerships in Virginia as well as many other states that are coming to the table, even states that you wouldn’t necessarily always think of as border states,” she said.
These 287(g) operations will continue across the country in partnership with state and federal law enforcement, resulting in successful enforcement operations, according to the officials.
Since the beginning of the administration, there have been 428 new 287(g) agreements signed with state and local law enforcement agencies, representing a 371% increase, Lyons noted.
Lyons said the partnerships with state and local law enforcement are “making communities safer.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security is demanding “detailed records” on Harvard University’s student visa holders, according to a statement from the department.
The school must turn over student visa holders’ records, specifically those pertaining to “illegal and violent activities,” or risk losing the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Harvard in a letter sent by the department.
The SEVP allows for noncitizen students to study at the university under a specific visa.
Noem told Harvard it is a “privilege” to have foreign students attend Harvard, “not a guarantee.”
“The United States Government understands that Harvard University relies heavily on foreign student funding from over 10,000 foreign students to build and maintain their substantial endowment,” Noem wrote in a letter dated April 16 and obtained by ABC News. “At the same time, your institution has created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to Harvard’s failure to condemn antisemitism.”
Noem requested that Harvard provide a tranche of information to the department to keep its SEVP status, asking it for information on student visa holders’ “known” illegally activity, violent activity, threats to students or faculty, disciplinary actions taken as a result of being involved in a protest, whether a student obstructed the school’s learning environment and the coursework that a student is taking to maintain the visa status, according to the letter.
“In the event the school fails to respond to this request within the timeframe provided … SEVP will automatically withdraw the school’s certification,” she wrote.
DHS is also pulling $2 million in grants from Harvard — part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to halt grant funding for the university.
“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said in a press release. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
On Monday, Harvard said it is refusing to comply with a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism subsequently announced a multibillion-dollar freeze on funding to the university.
The administration’s task force said it would withhold $2.2 billion in multiyear grants and $60 million in multiyear contract value to the institution.
In a statement, Harvard said it is aware of the letter sent by DHS and “values the rule of law,” according to a university spokesperson.
“Harvard is aware of the Department of Homeland Security’s letter regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas, which — like the Administration’s announcement of the freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, and reports of the revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status — follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same.
Georgetown student body president Ethan Henshaw speaks the “Hands Off Our Schools” rally in front of the U.S. Department of Education on April 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. Students from Georgetown University, Howard University, American University, George Washington University, George Mason University, and Temple University gathered to protest President Donald Trump dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Crowds of college and high school students representing student governments from some of the largest schools in the Washington, D.C., area rallied outside the U.S. Department of Education on Friday to oppose the administration’s gutting of the agency.
Chanting “hands off our schools” and “give us back our DOE,” demonstrators attended the rally outside department headquarters as education advocates and student organizers discussed the department’s importance to U.S. students.
Julia Comino, student body vice president at American University, said shuttering the agency would harm the rights of America’s most vulnerable.
“The Department of Education is the government agency that ensures that our universities have equal access, that people of all gender identities, of all racial, ethnic and protected classes,” Comino told ABC News. “And we know that when you go after the Department of Education, you’re actually going after the marginalized communities. So this is just an ongoing history of the attacks on those marginalized and vulnerable groups,” she said.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to shrink the department and return education control to the states. The department has already let go of nearly half its workforce.
“I think what we’re really trying to get across is that the Trump administration has just exceeded its authority,” said Asher Maxwell, a student press coordinator for the Georgetown University Student Association. “That’s really going to harm our education and our futures.”
The demonstration was organized by the student governments representing over 130,000 students at several colleges in the region, including Georgetown University, American University and Howard University, as well as Temple University in Philadelphia, according to the organizers.
The coalition is a “historic alliance” standing against the “assault on education,” including campus free speech and student financial aid programs, according to a release by organizers.
Critics say college students will especially be affected if the president follows through with transferring the responsibilities of the Office of Federal Student Aid — with its $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio — to another agency and terminating the federal workers who administer funds for higher education.
Ethan Henshaw, a Pell Grant recipient and Georgetown’s student body president, called the agency a “lifeline” for students to attain an equitable and quality education.
“This is threatening the livelihoods, the education access, the economic mobility of low- and middle-income Americans from every background all across the country,” Henshaw said. “I know, without access to the programs that come from this building, you know, education may not have been possible for me, so it’s incredibly important to come out here and demand that this institution stays strong, and that the Trump administration does not take away what’s so important to us.”
At an impromptu appearance at a news conference held by Democrats outside the department’s headquarters earlier this week, McMahon defended the administration’s moves, saying she believes the best education is “closest to the child where teachers and parents, local superintendents, working together and local school boards to develop the curriculum for those students is the best way that it can happen.”
McMahon has also vowed to continue funding statutorily mandated functions and responsibilities of the department.
The rally Friday followed about a month’s worth of Friday demonstrations at the department, including an “ED Matters” rally, “study-ins” and “clap-outs” for terminated federal workers.
More recently, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have condemned the changes at the department. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., launched a “Save Our Schools” campaign this week against the administration’s attempt to dismantle the department. Her campaign includes investigations, oversight, community engagement and lawsuits, according to the senator.”The federal government has invested in our public schools,” Warren said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “Taking that away from our kids so that a handful of billionaires can be even richer is just plain ugly, and I will fight it with everything I’ve got.”
Completely abolishing the department can’t be done without congressional approval.
Still, the students at Friday’s demonstration said the threats to close the department have already had a chilling effect on their campuses, according to Georgetown University Student Association Vice President Darius Wagner.
“We’re seeing them directly influence what we’re able to discuss in our spaces, teach in our classrooms and also through K through 12 schools, because they’re threatening to cut their funding if they do not comply with the views of the president,” Wagner told ABC News.
“That’s what’s happening here and it’s not hard to see that that is the road to breaking our institutions and limiting our ability to freely speak,” he said.
“This is only the beginning,” Wagner said, “This is why we started here at the DOE.”
