Congress
Most GOP lawmakers plan to skip Trump’s big parade
President Donald Trump is celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary — and his own 79th birthday — with a massive, multimillion-dollar military parade Saturday in Washington.
But one group of otherwise devoted Trump allies largely won’t be there to celebrate: congressional Republicans.
Among the 50 GOP lawmakers surveyed by Blue Light News, only six said they planned to stay in Washington this weekend for the festivities. Those begging off include members of the Republican leadership in both chambers.
The chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, the top congressional officials overseeing the military, are skipping Trump’s pageantry, which includes a flyover of vintage and contemporary warplanes. Instead, they’ll attend a different air show — the annual defense industry confab in Paris.
Among those attending will be some of Trump’s most devoted House supporters, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. “Yes, of course,” she said Tuesday. “I’m going to be there for the 250th anniversary of the Army.”
MAGA stalwarts Byron Donalds of Florida, Elise Stefanik of New York and Cory Mills of Florida also said they would attend, along with Reps. Rich McCormick of Georgia, John McGuire of Virginia and Lisa McClain of Michigan.
But many more said they would beg off — choosing, as most members do, to stay away from Washington for the weekend.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso are skipping, as is House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he’ll be back in Alabama campaigning for governor. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said it’s his anniversary, and “I choose to be married.” Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said the event conflicts with his daughter’s 18th birthday.
West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice said he’s a no but added that doesn’t “mean that I’m against it.”
“It’s great celebrating President Trump’s birthday, and I think it’s great celebrating the military,” Justice told reporters Tuesday. “We haven’t done that in a long time.”
Among those skipping are several military veterans and members of the two Armed Services panels. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a former Air Force reservist, said Tuesday he’s not planning to attend, though he left open the possibility. Other senators who have served in the military and are planning to sit out the celebration include Sens. Todd Young of Indiana, Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Sheehy of Montana.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast of Florida, another veteran, said Tuesday he’s unsure whether he’ll attend.
Other prominent House Republicans are also skipping. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris said he won’t attend, though his home is less than a two-hour drive from D.C. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said he’s heading home.
“It’s celebrating the birthday of the Army and I think it’s a good thing to do,” Cole said. “I just didn’t get to go home last week and I’d like to get to go this week.”
Asked if he was attending, Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker of Mississippi said, “I’ll be at the air show” — an apparent reference to next week’s Paris Air Show, where defense contractors peddle their latest wares. House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers of Alabama confirmed that’s where he’ll be.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment on his plans.
The White House is shrugging off the absences. An official granted anonymity to describe plans for the event said senior military leaders and at least 15 Cabinet members, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, are expected to attend.
“President Trump looks forward to a historic crowd at the Army Birthday Parade, where he will be joined by top military leaders, administration officials, congressional representatives, and most importantly, thousands of patriotic Americans to celebrate 250 years of honor, courage, and sacrifice by our United States military,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.
Many Hill Republicans have shrugged off the parade’s hefty price tag. But a few have raised concerns. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in an Army budget hearing last week that the costs could range from $25 million to $40 million. He said he could not provide an exact estimate because the Army could not predict how much damage its tanks would do to the District’s streets, potentially necessitating costly repairs.
“I don’t want to take anything away from celebrating the anniversary of our armed forces if it helps with recruiting and patriotism,” Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington said in a brief interview. “But it depends on what that number is. If it’s $100 million, it causes one to pause.”
Military leaders have defended the parade as a vital recruiting tool. But Democrats have railed against the administration for prioritizing pageantry over service members and their families. The parade, set to run along the north side of the National Mall, begins near the Pentagon — in the Virginia district represented by Democratic Rep. Don Beyer, who sees the event as a waste of money.
“Like his deployment of the military in L.A., it’s a shocking waste of money at a time they are closing Social Security offices ‘to save money,’” Beyer said in a statement. “They’re shutting down our regional transportation including the airport for this, and people I hear from in the military don’t even want it, the whole thing is just to boost Trump’s fragile ego.”
Trump warned Tuesday that protesters who show up to the Saturday parade will be met with “very big force.” Demonstrations to counter the parade are planned for other cities.
Beyer said Trump’s threat only added to “the trappings of authoritarianism” the parade already carried.
Roughly 6,600 troops are expected in Washington. The Army plans to roll 25 M1 Abrams main battle tanks and 150 vehicles down Constitution Avenue. A World War II-vintage B-25 bomber and P-1 fighter will join the parade, along with Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Soldiers marching in the parade will wear uniforms from every conflict the U.S. has fought, from the Revolutionary War to the present day.
Jordain Carney, Ben Jacobs and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) is jumping into the race to lead House education committee Democrats.
The Oregon Democrat officially declared she will run to be the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee in a Dear Colleague letter sent to members of the Democratic caucus Tuesday and shared with Blue Light News.
Bonamici’s jump into the race marks another challenger for Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the panel’s current ranking member. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) is also running for the panel’s top spot.
Bonamici wrote in the letter that she is “ready to bring a fresh and collaborative approach to invigorate this Committee with a plan to champion the education and labor priorities of our Caucus. With my legal background, I’m prepared to use all of the power of Congress to hold Trump and his cronies, including Secretary Linda McMahon, accountable for the harm they have caused.”
Bonamici introduced a resolution to impeach the Education secretary because of McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the department without the approval of Congress.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after Bonamici told POLITICO last month that she was not ruling out a run for committee leadership and was having conversations about it. Her leadership run now comes as Democrats believe they will win the House majority in November.
The Oregon Democrat, who currently serves as top Democrat on the K-12 subcommittee, said the whole panel “must provide a bold and visionary approach while fighting Trump’s corruption and assault on public education, unions, and working families” if they take the majority.
BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania — Speaker Mike Johnson defended President Donald Trump’s use of taxpayer funded political-themed ads ahead of the election, but he said it was “good” that MAGA Inc. would pay for them going forward.
Johnson said Tuesday that he’s only seen one of the Trump ads and that it “looked like a public service announcement.”
“It was talking about America’s greatness and the economy coming back, and it wasn’t a plea to vote for anybody. It was just — it was pro Americana,” Johnson told Blue Light News during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
But he added: “If the Super PAC’s funding them, that’s good.”
Trump said Monday that he or his aligned super PAC would pay for the series of taxpayer-funded ads featuring him in the final few weeks of the midterms. His decision came after bipartisan backlash, including from some GOP candidates like Brinker Harding in Nebraska’s 2nd District publicly broke with the president and said they shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer money.
Still, asked if Trump should refund taxpayers the money already spent on the ads, Johnson demurred. He said previous Democratic administrations have run PSAs as well, though Democrats argue these ads violate federal laws against using taxpayer money for “publicity or propaganda purposes.”
“Look, they’re making their decisions on funding campaigns and the content of all of it,” Johnson said of the president’s team.
“I’m going to tell you the president is deeply vested,” Johnson added, noting Trump was out on the campaign trail for Republicans.
Johnson spoke alongside Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) during a law enforcement event in the perennial bellwether of Pennsylvania’s 7th District. He called Mackenzie’s race one of the “top three in the country” and warned it would be “enormously expensive.”
He later argued that Democrats, if they win the House majority, would roll back GOP work on the economy and “empower our enemies around the world at the worst possible time.”
“That would roil the markets … if Democrats turned Congress into lawfare on steroids,” Johnson said.
Pennsylvania is the first of seven states that Johnson plans to visit this week as he continues his midterm campaign blitz.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he plans to stay on the court through next year, brushing aside speculation that he could retire early and let President Donald Trump fill his seat after the election but before a new Congress is sworn in next year.
“I intend to stick around through this term,” Alito, 76, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “I made that decision many months ago.”
The Supreme Court began its new term on Monday, which will last through next June.
Alito, the second-oldest justice on the bench, was in the news last week after telling CBS News that he considered retiring this year and will do so again in 2027.
His comments come as the fight over control of the Senate is in a dead heat. Democrats would have to flip at least four seats, but recent polls show several races, including in states Trump carried easily two years ago, remain competitive.
Several Senate Democratic candidates are already running on the prospect of filling a seat on the Supreme Court or, at least, denying Trump’s ability to do so. Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic nominee in 2016, allowing Trump to fill the seat after he came into the White House.
“Our race to decide Ohio’s next Senator could not only determine control of the U.S. Senate, but also who fills a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land,” Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee in Ohio, wrote in a blog post Monday. “Ohio’s next senator could be our first line of defense against another partisan Supreme Court Justice — or rubber stamp a Trump nominee.”
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