But bashing him for doing what virtually every president who came before him did is ridiculous.

Bashing him by saying that he admires and enjoys reviewing the military is absurd.

I am a veteran, US Navy, and I "stood in review" many, many times. I didn't hate it, didn't care one way or the other. It's part of the job. Standing for a presidential and foreign dignitary review would have been something of a kick.

"[T]he president has a deep affection for military pomp and circumstance." Guess what, so does the military. They probably welcome the President giving them an opportunity to engage in it.

Let's bash Trump over real things. There are plenty. Let's not engage in silly trivia.

Also a Navy vet (SM2) and outside of boot-camp I never paraded. It was 3 years of combat ops and maybe 8 hours of playing dress-up in all that time. The Brass doesn't want this. Huge waste of time and money.

Paraded every time ship entered or left port, called "manning the rail." Until my rate advanced to where my station on maneuvering watch had me below in the maneuvering room, that is. I kind of missed it, because for the most part all of us enjoyed putting on dress uniform and manning the rail.

Marched in a couple of parades, but I don't recall the circumstances. I do recall that I loved doing it, as did most of my shipmates.

for SS service, on diesels no less.
I was 90' above the water on an Essex class carrier.
A day without sunshine was rare.
Only time for a dress uniform was Liberty call.

That is dog and pony show unit I knew some guys served in old guard. Better to be actual infantry than a picture piece.

My roommate in Jump School was from the 3rd Infantry Regiment. He’d just finished Ranger School and they would smoke him for being a “leg Ranger”.

The Old Guard has to pass the same tests that Infantry units do. They even have one Batt that’s a Stryker unit.

Too the old guard ran into the one dude after my PCs to west Germany. But I did not know they had Stryker batt today.