As millions of Americans protested at “No Kings” rallies across the country, onlookers gathered in Washington on the president’s birthday for a muted celebration.

As the US Army prepares for its 250th birthday celebration with a major parade of military hardware in Washington, DC, which just happens to coincide with President Donald’s Trumps birthday, former officials are growing increasingly concerned about how the military is being pulled into the political arena by the Trump administration,

Israel’s military said it hit command centers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, while Iranian strikes overnight killed several people.

President Donald Trump has already eroded many of the U.S.’s democratic safeguards and traditions in the initial months of his second term.

As a military parade rolls through Washington, DC, on Saturday – President Donald Trump’s birthday – millions of Americans are expected to protest in what organizers predict will be the strongest display of opposition to Trump’s administration since he took office in January.

"I urge the authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly and to uphold human rights in law enforcement, including by refraining from any resort to military force when civilian authorities are capable of maintaining public order," Volker Turk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in a broad opening speech.

Fox News Digital spoke to attendees of the D.C. military parade, some who had traveled hundreds of miles to participate, about why they had come to the nation’s capital for the event.

The parade must go on, and the Army sidestepped a major crisis of image and messaging. The Army’s 250th birthday parade was not the grand military spectacle that many anticipated, and for that Americans can breathe a momentary, measured sigh of relief.