In the middle of Donald Trump’s birthday military parade on Saturday evening, an activist posted a video on the Meta platform, Threads, announcing that they had received more than a million views on a TikTok video advertising how to reserve tickets to the Trump parade event.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes couldn’t contain his laughter on air Friday while reading a fundraising email from President Donald Trump. The email asked for donations for his Saturday military parade, which, as it turns out, most Americans aren’t that eager to fund.

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.