Whoa, USA Today!

Trump is a weak man posing as a strongman. He prefers gaudy displays of strength to actual strength. Appearances can be deceiving, which is why Trump likes them. He’s the sort of person who would forgo chemotherapy and die rather than lose his hair and live.

For him, the parade is more important than the military. This is not to disparage him. Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations, “With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.”

Trump’s ill-fated airline, the Trump Shuttle, featured faux-marble sinks, gold-plated fixtures, leather seats and chrome seat-belt buckles — none of which passengers cared about. Trump’s “diamond in the sky,” as he called it, failed because it prioritized luxury — or, rather, the aura of luxury — over utility.

This is what Trump’s parade will do. Rather than spending the money on the military, Trump is spending money to show off the military. He is making the military weaker in order to show how strong it is.

Just be sure to clap.