Is Trump Ripping Off Trooping the Colour With His Flag Day Military Parade?

On Saturday, President Donald Trump will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States Army with a military parade in Washington, DC, which happens to fall on his 79th birthday. At the same time, King Charles III and Queen Camilla will gather the rest of the working royals at Buckingham Palace for Trooping the Colour, the annual military parade marking the monarch’s “official” birthday. It’s a family affair for the Windsors, and Prince William and Kate Middleton will take their place on the palace balcony, flanked by their three children and the rest of the working royals. The familiarity of the sights at Trooping the Colour is a major reminder that we don’t know exactly what to expect when Trump gets his moment to celebrate his role as the head of state.

The purposes of the two parades couldn’t be more different. Though both events will include a military flypast, the royals will mainly be watching soldiers as they march and ride through London on horseback. Trump’s parade, on the other hand, will foreground modernity and military might. His parade is set to include 150 military vehicles, including tanks, and equipment such as rocket launchers. (The parade has an estimated $30 million to $45 million price tag, and the US Army has agreed to pay for any damage its heavy tanks do to the streets of DC.)

In DC, the parade will mark the unofficial beginning of the nation’s semiquincentennial year, which will include events, commemorative stamps, and more throughout 2026. Though the Army celebrates its “birthday” with a small festival in the nation’s capital every year, plans for this year’s ceremony top anything it has done before. It also represents the culmination of Trump’s yearslong quest for the type of military parade he experienced during a visit to France in 2017. He’s been trying to organize a large-scale show of military might in the nation’s capital ever since, and in 2019 and 2020, he threw smaller parades on Fourth of July, capping each of them off with a patriotic speech.

Army officials told The Washington Post that there are no plans to actually celebrate Trump’s birthday on Saturday—he won’t be serenaded with “Happy Birthday,” for example—and the date seems to be a complete coincidence. (Trump said last month that the event is “not for my birthday.”) The Post also reported that Army officials first filed a permit for Saturday’s event a year ago, while Joe Biden was still in the White House, but as soon as Trump was involved, planning for the event was much more intense.

Trooping the Colour, which happens every year on a Saturday in June, is a military parade, a family gathering for the royals, and a moment for patriotic celebration for the crowds who gather to watch. Said to be based loosely on a Roman tradition in which a troop parades its flag, the tradition dates back to the 17th century, and has been taking place at the current parade ground since 1805.

The soldiers who participate are part of the Household Division, a selection of regiments that undergo ceremonial training in addition to their normal military service. In his 1984 book, Pillars of Monarchy, historian Philip Mansel wrote that the members of the Household Division evolved out of the royal guard that personally protected the sovereign as late as World War II, and even now they often consider themselves the sovereign’s “personal troops.”

Throughout the 20th century, the monarch and other working royals often wore a military uniform and rode their own horse to participate in the parade. Queen Elizabeth rode in the parade for decades, and her final appearance was in 1986. Princess Anne has appeared often in the years since, as has William. This time King Charles won’t be riding in the parade. He saddled up for the parade in 2023, but joined Camilla in the carriage in 2024, following his cancer diagnosis. According to The Times, his riding days are over, at least for major events like this.

Another thing the two parades will have in common is major protest participation. In Britain, Republic, an anti-monarchy organization, is planning to gather along the parade route with its bright yellow “Not My King” banners. In the United States, progressive groups are planning “No Kings” protests in approximately 1,800 locations across the country. Though the protests have been in the works for months, their message is getting an added significance after Trump deployed the National Guard in response to immigration protests in Los Angeles, over the objections of California’s Governor Gavin Newsom.