June 12, 2025
Six in 10 adults say that the upcoming military parade honoring the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army is not a good use of government funds. Still, slightly more people approve than disapprove of President Trump’s decision to hold the parade. The parade will be held in Washington on June 14th, which is Trump’s 79th birthday.
Forty percent of adults approve and 29% disapprove of Trump’s decision to hold a military parade. Two thirds of Republicans support Trump’s decision to hold the parade while half of Democrats oppose it. Half of independents neither approve nor disapprove.
Just over a third feel that the military parade is a good use of government funds, which is expected to cost as much as $45 million.
Eighty percent of Democrats say the parade is not a good use of government funds, while 65% of Republicans feel it is money well spent.
The public is split over the level of government spending on the military overall. This is similar to findings from the January 2025 AP-NORC Poll.
About half of Republicans say the U.S. government spends the right amount on the military, while about half of Democrats say too much is being spent. While Democrats’ views on U.S. military spending have changed only slightly since January, the share of Republicans who say the U.S. doesn’t spend enough has dropped from 55% to 37%, with more now saying the current level is about right—up from 29% to 49%.
Around 40% approve of Trump’s handling of his job as president overall, and his handling of issues including the economy, trade negotiations with other countries, and climate change. Trump gets slightly better marks on immigration with 46% approval. These numbers have largely held steady since he took office earlier this year.
Almost all Democrats disapprove of Trump’s handling of his job as president, the economy, immigration, trade negotiations, and climate change. Most Republicans approve.
Overall, 37% of the public feel the country is headed in the right direction, similar to recent months. Seventy percent of Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction compared with just 12% of Democrats.
The nationwide poll was conducted June 5-9, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,158 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Most say the upcoming military parade is not a good use of government funds.” (June 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/most-say-the-upcoming-military-parade-is-not-a-good-use-of-government-funds/
