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U.S. Military Tries To Reassure Spooked Public As Tanks Roll Into Washington DC

Military vehicles move into the capital city ahead of President Donald Trump's Independence Day event.

In a surreal scene, tanks rolled into Washington D.C. on Tuesday to participate in President Donald Trump’s Independence Day event.

“Residents of the Capitol City will see the vehicles move through their neighborhoods, but should not panic,” Army Col. Sunset Belinsky told WUSA, the CBS station in Washington.

At least two M1A1 tanks had entered the city as of Tuesday night, along with four other military vehicles, The Associated Press reported.

Trump has ordered numerous military vehicles to take part in a July 4th spectacle around the Lincoln Memorial, where he plans to make a speech. The “Salute to America” event will also feature fireworks and a military flyover.

Critics have slammed Trump for both the cost of the event and for politicizing a national holiday. Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, who serves as D.C.’s representative in Congress but has no voting power, told NBC4:

This robs us of the one holiday where everybody comes together and doesn’t even look at you to find out what your political party is. So he’s already, by the way in which he has taken hold of this event, made it into a political event.”

Twitter users shared images of the tanks and their own thoughts about the unusual sight of military vehicles moving through the nation’s capital:

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