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Opponents of US President Donald Trump belittled his order to put on a massive military parade in Washington DC to celebrate American power with one calling him “Napoleon in the making”.

Trump’s order to his generals to prepare a military extravaganza replete with tanks and marching soldiers was met with comparisons on Wednesday to autocratic displays that occur in nations such as China, North Korea, and previously the Soviet Union.

“I don’t think anyone believes this would be about trying to honour men and women who serve our country,” DC Council member Charles Allen told the Washington Post. “This would only be about feeding one man’s ego.”

Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison described Trump’s order as “the Exalted Leader’s latest idiot [and authoritarian] idea”.

“We have a Napoleon in the making here,” said Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

The idea for the show of military might apparently came after Trump visited France last July for Bastille Day when an impressive military display was held.

Sitting on the Champs-Elysees, Trump marvelled at the Republican Guard on horseback as fighter jets flew overhead and President Emmanuel Macron arrived in a camouflaged military jeep. “So we’re actually thinking about Fourth of July, Pennsylvania Avenue, having a really great parade to show our military strength,” Trump said months after his Paris experience.

Such shows of force are rare in the United States. The last major parade in Washington took place in 1991, after the Gulf War. It cost more than $8m, which would be significantly more in today’s dollars.

“It’s a fantastic waste of money to amuse the president,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

Even Trump’s supporters were lukewarm to the idea.

Republican Senator Lyndsey Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday a parade “makes sense”. But he added: “I’m not looking for a Soviet-style hardware display. That’s not who we are, it’s kind of cheesy, and I think shows weakness quite frankly.”

Trump has frequently touted his support for the US military and placed high-ranking generals in top White House and cabinet posts.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump’s intention was to have “a celebration” of the military.

Trump already raised fears over growing authoritarianism earlier this week after calling Democrats who did not applaud his State of the Union address “un-American” and “treasonous”. The White House said the president was “clearly joking”.

Military veteran and Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth — who lost both legs fighting in Iraq —denounced Trump’s comments. She noted medical deferments for a foot ailment meant he didn’t have to serve in the Vietnam War. “We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy,” said Duckworth.

“I swore an oath – in the military and in the Senate —to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of ‘Cadet Bone Spurs’ and clap when he demands I clap.”

Meanwhile, US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday Washington would soon unveil its “toughest sanctions ever” on North Korea, adding that the regime in Pyongyang would not be allowed to “hijack” the upcoming Olympics.

Speaking in Japan before attending the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in South Korea, Pence pledged that Washington would “intensify its maximum pressure campaign” on the North, working with Tokyo. “I’m announcing today that the United States will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever,” he said, without giving further details.

Pence’s three-day visit to Japan came as Washington seeks to bolster ties with its allies in the region and maintain pressure on the regime in Pyongyang despite a recent thaw on the peninsula. “All options are on the table and the US has deployed some of our most advanced military assets to Japan and the wider region to protect our homeland and our allies and we will continue to,” vowed Pence.

To highlight what Washington calls the regime’s human rights “abuses”, the vice president will attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics with the father of the late former North Korea prisoner Otto Warmbier.

The US and North Korea have been locked in a fierce war of words, with US President Donald Trump mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as “rocket man” and the young dictator threatening to rain nuclear destruction on the United States. But Kim has taken a more conciliatory tone in 2018, calling for detente with the South Koreans and accepting an invitation for his country to participate in what is being billed as the “peace Olympics”.

The two Koreas held a rare high-level meeting last month and the North’s ceremonial head of state is due to arrive today, the highest-ranking Pyongyang official ever to visit the South.

Nevertheless, the peninsula remains tense, with the North slamming anti-Pyongyang activists who protested against its participation as a “spasm of psychopaths”.

For his part, Abe said that Japan and the US had “confirmed . . .  that we can never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea”. — AFP