WASHINGTON, Jun 15: President Donald Trump's long-sought military parade rolled though the streets of downtown Washington on Saturday, but the celebration of the US Army's 250th anniversary was marred by a day of violence and discord.
In the hours before the parade began, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched and rallied in streets in cities from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, protesting Trump's actions while in office, in the largest such actions since his return to power in January.
Earlier in the day, a gunman assassinated a Democratic lawmaker and wounded another in Minnesota and remained at large.
Meanwhile, Israel and Iran exchanged further attacks early on Sunday, stoking fears of a mushrooming conflict between the two nations.
All of it followed a week of tension in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration raids resulted in Trump calling in National Guard troops and US Marines to help keep the peace, over the objections of the state's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
The parade, which fell on Trump's 79th birthday, kicked off earlier than expected with thunderstorms forecast in the Washington area.
Tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery rumbled down the parade route along storied Constitution Avenue, an unusual sight in the U.S. where such displays of military might are rare.
"Every other country celebrates their victories, it's about time America did too," Trump told the crowd following the parade.
Thousands of spectators lined up along the route. Trump watched the proceedings from an elevated viewing stand behind bulletproof glass.
Meanwhile, for hours, thousands of people in Los Angeles peacefully celebrated their defiance of US President Donald Trump Saturday with music, marching, bubbles and balloons -- then police unexpectedly moved in, and chaos and confusion broke out.
The demonstration -- part of the nationwide "No Kings" day of protests across the country -- was by far the largest in more than a week of protests ignited by anger against immigration raids the Trump administration has been carrying out across the country's second-largest city.
Like those before it, Saturday's had been largely peaceful. A march that began in the morning had finished, with demonstrators milling about on a sunny afternoon as the scene took on the air of a street festival. "REUTERS, AFP
