On June 14, President Donald Trump will celebrate his birthday by throwing a costly military parade in Washington, D.C. Estimates currently place the price tag for the event around $45 million, though the final cost could be much higher as the U.S. Army has committed to repairing any damage that the parade is likely to inflict on the streets of the nation’s capital.
Trump says that this parade is meant to celebrate 250 years of the Army, seemingly deflecting attention from the fact that he is organizing the parade on the date of his own birthday. But if Trump and his administration were truly interested in celebrating the service of 15.8 million veterans, 1.3 million in active duty, and more than 765,000 reservists, his administration would prioritize investing in the critical needs of this population. The money spent on this parade could fund care for thousands of homeless veterans or preserve hundreds of jobs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
In this moment, too many veteran and military families are suffering under the impact of ongoing cuts to critical programs and services, and many fear greater harms with looming cuts to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and the Bureau of Veteran’s Affairs. Here are just a few examples:
Attacks on the federal workforce are already harming veterans
Around 30 percent of the federal workforce are veterans—including hundreds of thousands of disabled vets. While veterans do have additional protections in place compared with nonveteran colleagues, some estimate that around 6,000 veterans have already been affected by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts across different departments and agencies.
In March, the Associated Press published an internal memo from the VA that revealed that the Trump administration plans to cut more than 80,000 employees from the VA as part of DOGE’s efforts, placing thousands of veteran employees at the agency at risk of termination. And while the Trump administration continues to seek funding increases that would bring the overall Pentagon budget above $1 trillion, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also issued guidance to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)—where veterans make up just less than half of all civilian personnel—to reduce the overall workforce by 5 percent to 8 percent.
According to DOGE’s own data, the average salary of a VA employee is $103,588, and the average salary at DOD is $94,501. The cost of Trump’s birthday parade could preserve at least 434 jobs at the VA or 476 jobs at DOD.
The cost of Trump’s birthday parade could preserve at least 434 jobs at the VA or 476 jobs at DOD.
The “Big, Beautiful, Bill” puts critical benefits at risk
On May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill through the budget reconciliation process—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1)— with deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits and enormous tax breaks for the wealthy. While the Senate will need to pass its own version of the bill, cuts to basic assistance and health insurance risk serious harm to active duty and veteran families.
Medicaid provides an important safety net for military and veteran families, many of whom face out-of-pocket expenses that are not covered by the TRICARE coverage for military members and their families. Around 860,000 military members use Medicaid coverage in addition to TRICARE—including 220,000 who use this coverage for their children—and 3.4 million children of veterans are covered by Medicaid. More than 10 percent of veterans are food insecure, and many rely on SNAP; 1.2 million veterans live in households that utilize SNAP benefits.
The House-passed reconciliation bill would kick 3.2 million people off their SNAP benefits due to ineffective work requirements and expansions to these requirements; while veterans would remain temporarily exempt from these requirements, the proposal allows that exemption to expire as of October 1, 2030. After that point, veterans up to and including the age of 64 would lose their benefits if they are unable to demonstrate they are working 80 hours per month unless they are exempt for another reason. Given the aging population of veterans, these work requirements place older, more vulnerable veterans at greater risk of losing access to critical benefits. In fiscal year 2024, SNAP benefits averaged around $2,250 per participant per year. Instead of funding Trump’s birthday parade, $45 million could allow 20,000 veterans who could lose access to food assistance to keep their critically needed benefits.
Instead of funding Trump’s birthday parade, $45 million could allow 20,000 veterans who could lose access to food assistance to keep their critically needed benefits.
Cuts to the VA leave vets without necessary services
The VA provides a variety of critical services to veterans, including disability compensation; pension funds for those with limited income who meet certain requirements; health care (including medical, dental, and mental health); education benefits; housing assistance; and life insurance. As of 2021, around half of all veterans had enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration, and 2022 legislation (the PACT Act) expanded care eligibility for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals, driving further enrollment in the past years.
The proposed cuts to the VA may threaten these programs, and many fear that reducing the VA to its size prior to PACT Act implementation will interrupt care for hundreds of thousands of veterans. The cuts may also affect critical medical research programs that benefit not only veterans, but the population at large: VA-funded research has led to breakthroughs such as the nicotine patch, the liver transplant, and the pacemaker.
While the worst of the proposed cuts have not yet hit, initial rounds of layoffs terminated around 5,000 employees earlier this year, and the administration has put in place a hiring freeze. The VA was suffering from staffing shortages prior to these actions, and a workforce already struggling to meet veterans’ needs is facing further challenges to its work: VA employees have cited “chaos” and worsening morale at the agency. The cuts have already negatively affected workers at the Veteran’s Crisis Line, for instance, which provides invaluable support to veterans in crisis.
LGTBQI+ veterans face targeted and compounded harms
Like other veterans and service members, LGTBQI+ people have honorably served the country in a variety of roles in the military—and yet the Trump administration’s actions disproportionately harm this group. LGBTQI+ people have a harder time both paying for medical care and finding providers that treat them with respect and dignity. When they lose providers, they have a harder time finding new ones, and so any interruptions in access to service will have disproportionate impacts on them.
The administration’s specific attacks on transgender people add another dimension of harm. Since inauguration day, Trump has sought avenues to push transgender service members out of the military, and the Pentagon has ordered the removal of transgender people, stripping these service members of their access to many benefits. In March, The Trump administration announced it would stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender veterans or veterans with gender dysphoria. The administration has painted this care as wildly expensive, but the Center for American Progress has estimated that cuts to gender-affirming care amount to only a few hundred thousand dollars per year at most; Trump’s military parade would cover the total cost of this care at least 90 times over.
CAP has estimated that cuts to gender-affirming care amount to only a few hundred thousand dollars per year at most; Trump's military parade would cover the total cost of this care at least 90 times over.
Conclusion
Donald Trump claims to stand behind American service members and veterans, but his administration’s attacks on the federal workforce and Congress’ spending cuts disproportionately harm this community. While President Trump spends tens of millions of dollars on a parade, those who have honorably served in uniform face compounded harms, worried about economic or health crises over the next months and years. But instead of prioritizing their needs, Trump is funding a ritual more akin to those hosted by dictatorships than democracies.
The author would like to thank Kyle Ross and Caleb Smith for their insights in contribution to this article.