'Kind of lame' A military show of force that passed America by

J Oliver Conroy WASHINGTON

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Last Saturday, as a crowd of thousands of people near the Washington Monument listened, a loudspeaker dramatically announced the names of the US secretary of defence, vice-president and president. The final name received a modest roar that surely flushed the watching commander-inchief with validation. With that, and with the boom of a 21-gun salute, the military parade that Donald Trump had coveted for years finally began.

A protester, Nicky Sundt, kept a lonely and mostly silent vigil at the side of the road. She held a sign depicting a cartoon Trump brushing back his combover to reveal a swastika emblazoned on his forehead. The placard said "Save our democracy". Standing near her - as a "counterprotest to the counterprotest to the protest, or something", as one of them put it a group of pro-Trump men held court. One was draped in an American flag. Another had a giant picture of Trump, in a crown, with the exhortation "Trump for king".

For the next couple of hours, spectators watched as the US army celebrated its 250th birthday - and, although he claims it is a coincidence, Trump's 79th - with America's largest and most controversial military parade in decades. Troops marched. Tanks rolled. Helicopters clattered. Paratroopers plunged out of the overcast sky.