Memorial Day 2025: What the Holiday Actually Means — and What Mainstream Media Gets Wrong About It

The Day Has One Job

Memorial Day is not Veterans Day. Not Armed Forces Day. Not a long weekend.

It is a single, specific thing: a national day of mourning for Americans who died in military service.

According to AP News, the holiday traces its roots to the Civil War — when communities, both North and South, began setting aside days to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. It was formally established as a federal holiday in 1971, though observances date back to 1868.

The country has been doing this for over 150 years. It still can't get it right.

Left Media Is Politicizing the Grief

The New York Times ran a piece this Memorial Day connecting Iraq War losses to the current conflict with Iran. There's real human value in that — Gold Star families deserve to be heard, and the parallel is legitimate. But the Times framing isn't really about honoring the dead. It's about building a case against current U.S. policy.

Grief deserves better than being recruited as an op-ed argument.

Right Media Is Turning It Into a Pep Rally

Fox News and the Daily Wire aren't off the hook either.

Fox ran a piece from Senator Jim Banks titled "Trump's new Triumphal Arch is a monument to American greatness." On Memorial Day. A political monument cheerleading piece. On the one day that's supposed to be about the dead, not the living — and certainly not about scoring points for any administration.

The Daily Wire teased a piece about "the hidden message" inside America's new WWI memorial — framed more like a puzzle box than a solemn tribute.

Both outlets published genuinely moving content too. A Fox News piece from an Army widow describing what it felt like when ordinary Americans showed up to honor her husband's return home was raw, real, and worth reading. That is Memorial Day journalism.

What National Review Actually Got Right

Of all the coverage surveyed, National Review came closest to the correct tone.

Their piece "Memorial Day at 250" — tied to America's 250th anniversary — made the blunt point that the country owes an enormous debt to a very small number of people. According to the Department of Defense, roughly 1.3 million Americans have died in military service since the Revolutionary War. That's 1.3 million people who didn't make it home.

Another National Review piece on the USO made a simple, honest observation: Memorial Day is for the dead. The living — the veterans, the wounded, the still-serving — have their own days. This one belongs to those who can no longer speak for themselves.

The Iran Context

The U.S. is currently in active conflict with Iran. American service members are in harm's way right now. The names being honored at ceremonies this weekend include recent losses — not just Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from 20 years ago.

According to AP News, President Trump indicated this weekend that a potential Iran deal is being discussed, urging against rushing the process.

Every day this conflict continues is a day more names get added to future Memorial Days. The Times uses that fact to argue against the war. Fox uses the conflict to showcase American resolve. Neither one sits with the actual human cost long enough to let it mean something.

What Gets Lost Every Year

Memorial Day has been slowly hollowed out.

The mattress sales. The cookouts. The "kickoff to summer" framing. None of that is wrong — soldiers fought for the freedom to enjoy a weekend with your family. But when the culture completely detaches the holiday from its purpose, something real gets lost.

The Army widow profiled by Fox News described the moment a group of strangers showed up, uninvited, to form an honor line when her husband's body came home. She didn't ask the government to do it. She didn't ask a politician. Regular Americans showed up.

National Review put it simply: "We owe so much to so few."

That sentence contains everything Memorial Day is supposed to be.