President Trump is hosting a parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army today, bringing tanks and soldiers to the streets of Washington, D.C., for the capital's first major military parade in more than three decades.

The festival and military parade are Saturday, June 14, with tanks, aircraft and thousands of soldiers on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The last time the United States held a national military parade was in June 1991, timed to welcome returning veterans of the 100-day Persian Gulf War.

Millions of Americans are likely to tune in, whether to show bipartisan support for the troops, for Trump or just out of curiosity.

Dissent against the parade is also coming partly from within one of Trump’s most reliable support bases: veterans. Although former U.S. military personnel have historically voted with wide margins in favor of Trump and the Republican Party, there is a growing discontent among some within the community.

Rallies are planned across Long Island and in New York City on Saturday, part of "No Kings" protests in hundreds of American cities scheduled on the same day as a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army.

Rain may dampen President Donald Trump's plans Saturday night to celebrate the U.S. Army's 250th birthday with thousands of troops, 150 vehicles and 50 aircraft.

Flying home from his first visit to Paris as president, an awestruck Donald Trump told aides aboard Air Force One that the military parade he’d just witnessed was one of the most dazzling spectacles he’d ever seen.

By some measures, President Donald Trump’s military parade has been years in the making. The event planned for Saturday will mark the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday, with thousands of soldiers and dozens of massive military vehicles and aircraft descending on the National Mall.

While the idea might be novel for many Americans, military parades are common spectacles in many parts of the world.

The military parade to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary and its convergence with President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday are combining to create a peacetime outlier in U.S. history. Yet it still reflects global traditions that serve a range of political and cultural purposes.