Birthday boy's long-held dream of military parade comes true in scenes that mirror Moscow

It may have been billed as a military parade to celebrate the US military's history, but it said even more about the country's present and future under Donald Trump.

- Andrew Roth

Soldiers, tanks and even robot dogs paraded along Constitution Avenue on Saturday as paratroopers swooped in from overhead and aircraft buzzed past the Washington Monument for the first major military parade held in the US capital since the victory after the first Gulf war of 1991.

Or was this all a celebration for Trump's 79th birthday? As the president took the stage under ominous stormclouds, it appeared that he could not have beamed any wider, his eight-year-old dream of holding a military parade in the capital finally coming to fruition.

For both his supporters and opponents, this was "Trump's parade" (he even billed it as his own in a fundraising email last week). "This could only happen under President Trump," bellowed one voice after the Star-Spangled Banner played on the National Mall as families queued to sit in army helicopters and atop anti-aircraft batteries. It felt like it could have been a scene from Moscow.