On the evening before his birthday, June 14, 2025, US President Donald Trump stood before a grand military parade in Washington, D.C., as tanks rumbled, fighter jets roared overhead, and hundreds of troops marched in formation. The occasion marked both Trump’s 79th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the United States military but the celebration stirred controversy as much as spectacle.
While the display of military power was intended to showcase American strength, critics saw something else: a show of growing autocracy and alarming environmental waste.
The scale of the event was massive. Over 150 military vehicles, including 60 tanks, armoured carriers, and more than 50 helicopters and aircraft, rolled and flew through the capital. Old warplanes from the Second World War like the Mustang fighter and B-25 bomber also made an appearance. These vintage machines, famous for their wartime legacy, are infamous for their fuel consumption, burning hundreds of gallons every hour.
The environmental cost? Shocking. According to estimates by the Institute for Policy Studies and reported by The Guardian, the parade pumped over 2 million kilogrammes of planet-warming emissions into the air the same as producing 67 million plastic bags or powering 300 average homes for a year. And that’s only the direct emissions from the vehicles and aircraft on display. The true total could be much higher if the energy used to transport thousands of troops, horses, equipment, and security staff is counted.
Critics slammed the event as an unnecessary and damaging display. “We’re spending money to glorify gas-guzzling machines used in war, genocide, and destruction of the planet,” said Hannah Holmstead, a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies. She pointed out that some of the vehicles on parade had dark pasts — including transporting napalm during the Vietnam War — and are now being used in today’s conflicts, such as the war in Gaza.
Lindsay Koshgarian, a program director at the Institute, was equally scathing. “This parade happened while the government plans a $1 trillion Pentagon budget, yet wants to slash spending on healthcare, food, and climate programs,” she said. “The more money we pour into tanks and helicopters, the less we have to protect people and the planet from real threats like climate change.”
The US military is under growing pressure for its role as the world’s single largest institutional source of greenhouse gas emissions bigger than many countries. Environmental groups have long warned that defense spending, wars, and exercises like this parade come at a huge cost to the planet.
As Trump watched the parade with a solemn expression, and some troops marched without much enthusiasm, the message to many wasn’t one of national pride but of misplaced priorities in a world battling both democracy challenges and a climate crisis.