Did the Biden administration approve the permit in June 2024 for a "grand parade" for the Army's 250th birthday? No, that's not true: The parade permit application was submitted in March 2025, more than a month after President Biden left the White House and President Trump's administration began, according to a National Park Service spokesman. The permit application for a smaller Army birthday celebration, not including a parade, was submitted in June 2024, during the Biden administration. Lead Stories obtained copies of the permit applications that confirmed those dates.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on June 16, 2025. It read:
For those unaware:
The US Army filed for permit to be granted a grand parade for it's 250 years-old function in 'June of 2024.'
It was approved by joe biden's administration.
This parade was not created by Trump, nor was it intended to coincide with his own birthday.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 17 16:07:00 2025 UTC)
The claim that Biden approved the military parade plan a year ago was a rebuttal to claims that Trump called for the parade to coincide with his 79th birthday, which coincided with the U.S. Army's 250th birthday.
Mike Litterst, the chief of communications for the National Mall and Memorial Parks section of the National Park Service, confirmed in an email to Lead Stories that the parade permit was requested and approved after President Trump took office this year.
There were two separate permitted events celebrating the Army's 250th birthday on the National Mall that took place on Saturday, June 14, 2025. The first was a festival on the Mall, for which an application was submitted on June 13, 2024; the second was the military parade, which submitted an application on March 30, 2025. Copies of both applications are attached.
This is the June 2024 permit for the Army birthday celebration on the Mall.
This is the March 2025 permit for the Army birthday parade.
