TIL Desk/World/New York/ US President Donald Trump has paid tribute to all the American veterans – currently numbering at some 18 million – in an emotional message at the traditional Veterans Day Parade in New York. Trump, the first sitting President to participate in the event, which on Monday commemorated the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and the beginning of the traditional parade, said that it was time to acknowledge the sacrifice of all soldiers.
Attending the event, which took place in Lower Manhattan and was the largest parade of its kind in the US, were veterans of various wars in which the US has participated, along with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as New York chief of police James O”Neill, Senator Chuck Schumer, First Lady Melania Trump and Eric Trump, the President”s son.
The President, who addressed about 200 people before the start of the parade organized by the United War Veterans Council and in which some 25,000 people marched along Fifth Avenue, recalled the end of World War I. He said that in 1919, the streets of New York filled with excited citizens to welcome Gen. John Pershing, who had led the US Expeditionary Force in World War I, along with 25,000 American troops. “The men and women who have donned our nation”s uniforms are the bravest, toughest, strongest and most virtuous warriors ever to walk on Earth,” he said.
