Congressional Democrats and at least one high-profile Republican are slamming the multimillion-dollar cost of the Army’s 250th anniversary parade on Saturday that President Donald Trump has long sought to celebrate the military.
Trump has said the cost — projected to be as much as $45 million for the Army alone, not counting security and other expenses — will be “peanuts compared to the value of doing it.”
However, his critics argue the money could be better spent elsewhere.
If it was really about celebrating military families, we could put $30 million toward helping them offset the cost of their child care, food assistance and tuition,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on X. “But it isn’t. Trump is throwing himself a $30 million birthday parade just to stroke his own ego.”
The Army said it has accounted for spending between $25 million and $45 million on the parade, which will include 6,700 troops and dozens of tanks, military fighting vehicles and aircraft staged on or near the National Mall.
“Money should be put in medical defense research instead of wasted on some pomp and circumstance for the president,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday. “This is not consistent with what the men and women in uniform deserve.
Saturday’s parade also falls on Trump’s 79th birthday, and when it ends near the White House, the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team will present him with an American flag, after which he’ll administer the constitutional oath to Army enlistees.
“We all like to enjoy a nice birthday party,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted on X. “But most of us don’t celebrate with a $45 million taxpayer-funded military parade.
“Save taxpayer money. Have a birthday cake and blow out a few candles,” he said. “Don’t shut down the capital and roll out 60-ton tanks through the streets.”
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said. “We were always different than, you know, the images you saw in the Soviet Union and North Korea. We were proud not to be that.
