You probably heard about the $45 million (perhaps more) in taxpayer funds that President Donald Trump spent on a Washington, D.C., parade for the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary Saturday.

The big soiree happened to also fall on Trump’s 79th birthday, and plenty of Americans reckoned the timing not at all coincidental. Judging by the photos and video from the nation’s capital, there were plenty of unfilled seats and places to stand along the District of Columbia parade route.

Ed and Ellen Tutle, who live in the Hollins area, were among a large throng of anti-Trump demonstrators who showed up for the “No Kings” rally in Elmwood Park Saturday.

Meanwhile, at more than 2,000 locations across the nation, millions of Americans turned out for “No Kings” rallies, to signify their vehement opposition to the president. Rallies happened in Christiansburg, Floyd, Rocky Mount and Martinsville, and many other locales in Virginia.

The city of Roanoke sported two anti-Trump rallies, Saturday morning at McCadden Park in northwest Roanoke, and Saturday afternoon at Elmwood Park downtown.

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I had to miss the Saturday morning fun because of a backyard appointment with a tree-cutter. But I got down to Elmwood Park that afternoon. The crowd was boisterous and thick; attendees seemed joyously defiant.

Along Jefferson Street, a woman who declined to tell me her name carried a sign, “Abort 47.”

An attendee at the “No Kings” rally in Roanoke’s Elmwood Park Saturday made a sign reflecting that Saturday was President Donald Trump’s birthday.

A man lined up along westbound Elm Avenue held a sign, “HAPPY BIRTH DAY 4F BONESPURS.” (The latter diagnosis was how Trump avoided getting drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.)

I wandered around and asked people the same question: On the president’s birthday, what’s your message for Trump? And though I identified myself as a Roanoke Times journalist, I got few takers.

Some folks were reluctant to tell me their names — they cited the liberal politicians gunned down in Minnesota on Friday night, allegedly by a Trump-supporting kook who had a long list of political targets.

Hundreds jammed Roanoke’s Elmwood Park Saturday for an anti-Trump rally on President Donald Trump’s birthday. Hundreds of others demonstrated in Rocky Mount, Floyd and Christiansburg. Across the nation, the anti-Trump turnout was in the millions.

The most common answer I heard from folks was, their thoughts were too laden with expletives to make the editor’s cut.

“I’m not sure it’s printable,” Russell Potter, a senior citizen from Roanoke, said of his birthday message for the president.

Sitting next to Potter in a mobbed Elmwood Park was Michael Huff, also of Roanoke. He held a hand-lettered sign with the number “8647” and the messages “Dump Trump … Fight Fascism … No Kings.”

In American slang, the number 86 typically denotes some kind of cancellation. Huff’s birthday message to President Trump?

“Many happy returns NOT,” Huff said, emphasizing the last word.

Michael Huff of Roanoke carried a sign with an anti-Trump number — “86” is slang for “cancel.”

Between the U.S. Air Force and the North Carolina Air National Guard, Marty Dickens of Roanoke said she has 32 years of service to this nation. Thank you! Dickens carried a sign that read, “THIS VETERAN WON’T KNEEL TO A WANNABE KING.”

Air Force veteran Marty Dickens said she hopes Saturday is President Donald Trump's last birthday in office.

What was her birthday wish for Donald Trump?

“That this be your last birthday in the White House,” Dickens said.

Jordan Fallon of Roanoke took the title of “most enigmatic answer.” Her wish for Trump was that “he gets the birthday he deserves.”

And perhaps he did. Media coverage of the parade in Washington found unfilled seats along the parade route and lots of people leaving during the president’s eight-minute-long speech.

Among the first folks I encountered at the “No Kings” rally were Ed and Ellen Tutle who live in the Hollins area. They set up under a tree in front of the library on Jefferson Street.

“It’s Donny’s birthday,” Ed Tutle said. “That’s why we’re here to make sure there’s no kings in America.”

Ellen Tutle said: “I think that Donnie is a spoiled baby who needs the military to prove to himself that he has strength, which he actually does not have. I will celebrate when he is no longer in office, and I hope (he) is sent to jail.”

Vicki Harwell of Roanoke County suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a personal mobility scooter to get around. She demonstrated at the rally in Elmwood Park on Saturday because she's concerned that Trump will halt research for an multiple sclerosis cure by the National Institutes of Health.

“The best gift you could give the American people is compassion, justice and supporting our democracy,” Gussoni said.

One of the folks there was a former Ukrainian journalist, Olena Kuhfahl. She lived in her homeland in 2014 and watched its Russian-leaning president, Viktor Yanukovych, flee Ukraine after massive anti-Russia demonstrations by Ukrainians. Later that year, Russia seized and occupied Crimea, in southern Ukraine.

Now she lives in Union Hall with her American husband, David Kuhfahl.

Ukrainian native Olena Kuhfahl left her homeland after Russia seized Crimea in 2014. Now she lives in Union Hall with her husband, David Kuhfahl. She said her birthday wish for Trump is that he checks into an insane asylum.

She said her birthday wish for Donald Trump is: “As soon as possible, he enters an asylum.”

David Kuhfahl noted that his wife fled her homeland to avoid fascism, and “here we are 10 years later, and we’ve turned into what Ukraine was just before their Revolution. Wow!”

Ellen Buerdsell told me her message for Donald Trump would be: “It’s time to retire. I don’t wish you a happy birthday. I wish that you would be gone.”

We’ll wrap this up with some thoughts from Rick Howell of Roanoke. For many years, the Kroger retiree was a stalwart and outspoken member of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Howell showed up carrying a multi-colored, hand-lettered sign that compared the president to Adolf Hitler.

Rick Howell of Roanoke at the "No Kings" rally in Elmwood Park Saturday afternoon. Howell said that the president is not "making America great," and that Trump "should be ashamed."

“What’s your birthday message to the president?” I asked Howell. He didn’t flinch.

“I wish you understood what you’re doing to tear the beautiful things in this country apart,” Howell said. “You’re not making America great. You’re filling it with hatred and racism and pettiness, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

“You should be ashamed.”

Roanoke Indivisible founder Ivonne Wallace-Fuentes discusses the No Kings protest held at McCadden Park in Roanoke on Saturday.

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