As President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — along with others in the administration — joined together to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday on Saturday, several at MSNBC appeared to struggle with the fact that the overall vibe on the ground was less fraught and more fun.

Host Chris Hayes compared the scene to typical Trump rallies — which he claimed could be “very tense” and sometimes had a “dark, malevolent energy” — and then seemed genuinely surprised to note that the scene playing out at the National Mall had a very different feel.

WATCH:

Over at MSNBC, they’re almost SHOCKED the celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday isn’t “tense” and doesn’t have “dark, malevolent energy.”

These people… pic.twitter.com/ZO0fxWohsI

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 15, 2025

“One thing I will say — I want to go back to you, Ali, again, when we talk about the sort of tension in the country,” Hayes began. “And sometimes, you know, you and I have both been at Trump rallies, those can be, you know, very tense, a kind of — I would say a kind of dark, malevolent energy sometimes in them. Not always, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the energy on the Mall today, which I think is a good sign, right?”

“Correct,” Ali Velshi — who was on location — replied. “You’re — you’re really correct about that, Chris, and it’s something that we — that we were watching for. I’m just sort of surprised by the number of people who were at the front of the parade watching, cheering, and then would come and ask to take a selfie.”

“This is a very different mood here,” Velshi continued. “People seem to be going out of their way to say that they’re here to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday.”

He said he’d seen one guy carrying a sign that said, “TRUMP 2028,” but that most people were not bringing politics into the celebration.

“It’s not dark. It’s not tense,” he said. “It’s different.”

After the tyrannical Iranian regime turned off the internet in Iran — effectively preventing the Iranian people from knowing the damage caused to the regime by Israel’s military strikes and thus emboldening them to challenge the regime — free speech advocate Elon Musk confirmed he had turned on Starlink, allowing the Iranian people access to the Internet.

Musk responded to Fox News host and radio host Mark Levin, who noted, “Elon Musk can put the final nail in the coffin of the Iranian regime by providing Star link internet to the Iranian people! Iran cut off all internet so that the people cannot organize a coup and communicate.”

“The beams are on,” Musk succinctly responded.

The beams are on

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2025

Iranian dissidents have cheered the Israeli strikes on Iran and criticized the regime for its war with Israel. Iranian scholar and filmmaker Faezeh Alavi, who saw her event “From Conflict to Connection: Israelis and Iranians in Dialogue,” at King’s College canceled in February after anti-Israel activists protested, responded to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu saying to the Iranian people, “Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years” by posting on X: “Bibi is spot on. We are sharing the same enemy. The Islamic Republic’s nuclear program must be stopped; otherwise, a nuclear war would start by this regime soon, and Iranian people would lose ANY chance of freeing Iran. Many world leaders also owe Israel for protecting them from this threat.”

Bibi is spot on. We are sharing the same enemy.

The Islamic Republic's nuclear program must be stopped; otherwise, a nuclear war would start by this regime soon, and Iranian people would lose ANY chance of freeing Iran.

Many world leaders also owe Israel for protecting them… pic.twitter.com/MMNPIKGzax

— Faezeh Alavi (@SFaeze_Alavi) June 13, 2025

“Only the deaths of Khamenei, his son Mojtaba, and Pazakhian will shorten the path to victory over the despotic regime of the jihadists in Tehran. After that, there will be no alternative leadership left — not even within the Revolutionary Guards. Otherwise, Iranians and Israelis are in for a very long period of suffering,” Professor Afshin Ellian wrote.

רק מותם של ח'אמנאי, בנו מוג'תבא ופזשכיאן יקצר את הדרך לניצחון על המשטר הדספוטי של הג'יהאדיסטים בטהראן. לאחר מכן לא תישאר שום הנהגה חלופית — אפילו לא בתוך משמרות המהפכה. אחרת, צפויה לאיראנים ולישראלים תקופה מאוד ארוכה של סבל.

— Afshin Ellian (@AfshinEllian1) June 15, 2025

Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians “to overthrow the Islamic Republic through street protests and nationwide strikes,” adding, “Ali Khamenei, the foolish leader of the anti-Iranian regime of the Islamic Republic, has once again embroiled Iran in a war; a war that is not [against] Iran and the Iranian nation, but [against] the Islamic Republic and Khamenei.”

Famed Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad wrote on X, “The Islamic Republic’s insistence on continuing confrontation with Israel is based on illusions, ideological slogans, and unrealistic calculations, and it has no result other than the destruction of our Iran. A disaster whose costs will not only be political, but also human and security. And what’s even more bitter is that these costs will be paid with the lives of people who have no role or authority in these decision-making. How long will the Iranian people have to pay the price for a war that was neither their choice nor their benefit?”

اصرار جمهوری اسلامی بر تداوم تقابل‌جویانه با اسرائیل، بر اساس توهمات و‌ شعارهای ایدئولوژیک و محاسبات غیرواقع‌بینانه است و بس و هیچ نتیجه‌ای ندارد جز ویرانی ایران ما.

فاجعه‌ای که هزینه‌های آن نه صرفاً سیاسی، بلکه انسانی و امنیتی خواهد بود. و نکته‌ی تلخ‌تر آن‌که، این هزینه‌ها از… pic.twitter.com/6EmVZz84pn

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) June 15, 2025