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Friend, On June 14, dozens of tanks and thousands of soldiers will proceed down Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Avenue to commemorate Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.(1) There is no precedent for this in the United States. However, there is in Russia, when Stalin did the same for his 50th birthday, and Nazi Germany, when Hitler held one for his 50th.(2) And this ceremony for our very own dictator is estimated to cost taxpayers as much as $45 million, at a time when Trump is trying to label health insurance for millions of Americans as waste and abuse.(3)
The Trump administration is trying to sell the parade as a commemoration of the U.S. Army, but we know the truth. This isn’t about honoring service. It’s about idolizing power. We can defund this disgusting display with the passage of the Halting All Parades For President’s Yearly Birthdays; It Risks Taxpayer Harm, Damages, and Your (HAPPY BIRTHDAY) Budget Act, which would prohibit taxpayer funds from going to this spectacle. Don’t think your voice can make a difference? Trump was forced to cancel the Veterans Day tank parade he proposed in 2018 because thousands of activists helped make the very idea of funding such a spectacle politically toxic. And people across the country can make this would-be birthday parade such a headache that no future administration attempts -- and no Congress funds -- such an extreme and authoritarian self-congratulation ever again. Thank you for being in the fight! –Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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