In an excerpt from the forthcoming chronicle of Trump’s presidency, The Divider, journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser reveal that Mr Trump got the idea for a military parade when he saw Bastille Day celebrations during a visit to 2017 in France. The authors reported that Pentagon officials were not thrilled with the idea, which one general said looked more like the dictatorship he fled as a child than the government he had spent a lifetime serving as an adult. But Mr Trump pressed ahead with the idea of replicating France’s annual parade, except for one feature he didn’t like. According to Mr. Baker and Ms. Glasser, Trump told US defense officials: “Look, I don’t want anyone injured at the parade — that doesn’t look good to me.” (AFP via Getty Images) His chief of staff at the time, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, tried to tell him that wounded veterans were “the heroes.” “In our society, there’s only one group of people who are more heroic than they are — and they’re buried in Arlington,” said Mr. Kelly, whose son was among those buried across the river in the most hallowed military country cemetery. But Mr. Trump was unmoved. “I don’t want them. It doesn’t look good to me,” he said.
