For the first time since Richard Nixon’s “Honor America Day” (which was unceremoniously and prematurely ended by nude protesters and widespread violence), a president inserted himself into what has traditionally been a nonpartisan celebration of the nation’s birthday.

This year’s “Salute to America” wasn’t met with violence or nudity. It was well attended, with visitors from across red America traveling to see President Trump, flanked by armored vehicles, extol the virtues of the American military branches past, present and future (including the “Space Force”) as he summoned machines of war from the sky.

But what those visitors saw were fences, lots and lots of fences. The throngs of the MAGA-hatted not lucky enough to have V.I.P. tickets were met with a wall, cutting right through the middle of the Reflecting Pool and separating the Very Important People from the somewhat less important people.

I met families from Jackson, Miss., and Orlando, Fla., to Fond du Lac, Wis, who braved the hot and soggy conditions for upward of six hours, waited in long lines with their young children, and with other families pressed against this border for a glimpse of their president on giant television screens obscuring the solemn grandeur of the Lincoln Memorial.