vintage tanks rolling down the Champs-Élysées and fighter jets roaring overhead, all calculated to appeal to Trump. “You are going to be doing this next year,” the French general in charge had predicted to an American counterpart as they watched Trump’s delight. Sure enough, Trump returned home determined to have the Pentagon throw him the biggest, grandest military parade for the Fourth of July ever. “I’d rather swallow acid,” Mattis said, when the idea came up in one of many Pentagon meetings meant to find a way out of having to give in to the president.[38] Eventually, military officials
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