President Donald Trump's birthday celebration in Washington, D.C. will begin by inconveniencing thousands of passengers next Saturday, and at the same time, the Archdiocese of Chicago will be doing its own counter-programming, MSNBC's John Heilemann noted on Friday.
June 14 will be Trump's 79th birthday, which he is combining with Flag Day and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, marking the occasion with a military parade similar to the one Trump witnessed in Paris during the Bastille Day parade with French President Emmanuel Macron.
"You know, there are so many reasons that you might want to push back on this military parade. All of them have been discussed before. There's a very kind of Kim Jong Un vibe to it," Heilemann told MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire. "It's obviously going to be a kind of a nightmare, logistics-wise, for Washington, D.C. The streets are going to get all torn up. They're going to be filling in potholes from the damage that gets done for months to come. But here's the part I'm more interested in. Are you aware of the counterprogramming effort that's taking place on the same day?"
Heilemann wasn't talking about the "No Kings" anti-Trump protests that will happen that day around the country, but Pope Leo XIV's mass in Chicago hosted by the Archdiocese. It's being called an event "of faith, unity, and community spirit," Vatican News reported Monday.
While the pope will not be on hand personally, the event will be held at the White Sox stadium and will feature a video of the former Chicago cardinal. By the end of the first day, 20,000 tickets to the event had already been sold. As of Friday, the $5 tickets were sold out. The event will be streamed live online, though CatholicTV hasn't indicated whether it will air coverage.
"A bit of counterprogramming there," said Lemire. "But I will say, when the pope does come for real in the flesh. Chicago. Millions of people."
"But the counterprogramming point remains Lemire, because the truth is for America and Trump's military parade in Washington, if you don't live in Washington, that's a television spectacle," Heilemann added. "If you don't live in Chicago, the pope's doing a video mass there at Rate Field. It's the same thing for those of us who live in New York. They're both just TV shows. And, you know, that's the definition of counterprogramming."
Washington, D.C.'s airport will be forced to shut down for several hours that Saturday for the birthday event, the Washington Post reported.
"Aviation officials are forecasting major disruptions for more than 100 flights and thousands of passengers that day," Lemire reported, reading the Post.
The Times reported that there will be 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks, which weigh in at 70 tons each; 28 Stryker armored personnel carriers; more than 100 other vehicles; 6,700 soldiers; 50 helicopters; 34 horses; two mules and a dog.
The Army did not have a parade when it celebrated its 200th birthday, the New York Times reported.
Tickets appear to still be available for the Washington event.
See the MSNBC clip below or at the link here.