The US commander-in-chief goaded troops to boo political opponents and the media and called protesters "animals" in what was meant to be a non-partisan event at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the country's biggest military installation.
The Republican president meanwhile reinforced his strongman image as he watched spectacular rocket fire, special forces training and parachute displays, standing behind sandbags while surrounded by military officers in camouflage.
The event came days before tanks are set to rumble through Washington in a huge and highly unusual military parade on Saturday, which coincides with Trump's own 79th birthday.
Trump has long shown a fascination for the military -- and envy for the military parades that his foreign counterparts preside over.
But on Tuesday he spent much of his speech talking about anything but the army, preferring instead to go on a diatribe on the Los Angeles protests.
"They're incompetent," Trump said of California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, as some troops in the audience booed.
Newsom has attacked Trump as "dictatorial" after the president deployed thousands of troops including 700 active duty US Marines to Los Angeles following clashes sparked by US government immigration raids.
- 'Theater of leadership' -
Pointing at the "fake news," Trump said "look what I have to put up with" as troops booed again.
Democratic former president Joe Biden also earned a few boos when Trump mentioned him.
Trump then ramped up the military language as he promised to "liberate" Los Angeles, saying he would "not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy."
The Republican also announced that he would be restoring the names of other US Army bases that, like Fort Bragg, honored military figures of the pro-slavery Confederacy from the US Civil War.
He was accompanied by Pentagon chief and former Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth, who hailed the end of what he called "woke" in the US military.
In scenes that resembled one of his election rallies last year, Trump finally left the stage to cheers as he did his trademark dance to the Village People song "Y.M.C.A."
The event comes in a week loaded with military symbolism for Trump.
He made it clear earlier that he would not tolerate anyone spoiling the parade on Saturday -- which marks the 250th anniversary of the army but falls on his birthday too.
"If there's any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force," Trump said earlier at the White House.
For Trump, "what matters is the spectacle. And the military is a heck of a spectacle," said Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media.
"The military parade, the military in Los Angeles is theater of leadership, theater of governing, without paying attention to the real-world consequences," Loge told AFP.
- 'Speaking German' -
Trump was sent to a military academy as a child by his property tycoon father, and seems to have loved military pomp ever since -- even if repeated educational and medical deferments meant he could avoid the draft to fight in Vietnam.
He first had the idea for a grand military parade after attending France's annual Bastille Day parade in Paris at the invitation of his friend, President Emmanuel Macron, but is only getting around to it in his second term.
World War II meanwhile appears to have been increasingly on Trump's mind since returning to office.
He recently designated May 8 "Victory Day," noting that unlike much of Europe, the United States had no day to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany -- and he has repeatedly downplayed the role of US allies in the war.
"Without us, you'd all be speaking German right now, maybe a little Japanese thrown in," Trump said at Fort Bragg.
Critics say that Trump's military fascination underscores an authoritarian streak.
"The imagery is very much strongman: I am Donald Trump, America is a nation of force and power, because look at all the images of force and power," Loge said.
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