President Trump was very comfortable championing massive military spending increases after taking office, declaring himself the most pro-military person ever. He jumped ahead of Pentagon requests, and Congress jumped ahead of him, leading to record military spending.
On Monday, Trump showed signs of buyer’s remorse, saying he believes the current levels of spending are “crazy” and that there needs to be a meaningful halt to global arms races. He called for talks with Russia and China on slowing down this runaway spending growth.
No one seems to have prepared other officials to echo this narrative, however, so on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told the Senate Armed Services Committee that anything short of the requested $733 billion budget would “increase risk” to the US.
This is a big distinction, as Trump has said he expects “probably $700 billion” in spending for the military in that next budget, while trying to rein in the soaring deficit. That was less cuts than other departments are facing, but it’s also still a cut, which has the military panicking.
This largely mirrors what was seen during the “sequestration” years, where even though the Pentagon never met mandated sequestration cuts, they still spend every year prophisizing doom to Congress for purely hypothetical cuts.
The big change this time around is Trump, as during sequestration, virtually everyone was on board with just pretending it was a thing. Trump seems uncomfortable with what his soaring Pentagon budget is doing to his overall budget, and that could put him in the rare position of actually wanting cuts.
As far as courting support from Russia and China for cuts, however, Trump may struggle. Russia is already cutting its military spending substantially, and both of those nations’ spending are dwarfed by America’s own enormous military. This is clearly a much bigger problem for the US than for anyone else.
And while Trump is in a position to push such cuts as necessary, it still remains to be seen if he can cut through the inevitable objections from both the Pentagon and Congressional hawks, for whom anything short of a major increase is unacceptable, and an actual, real cut would be unthinkable.
Well I guess our schools will need more Bake Sales……………suggestion, begin by cutting by 50% our off shore military bases and pull out of Afghanistan, Syria.
50% would be a good start.
Classic Trump. You make a poorly researched act then suffer from the unintended consequences and have to crawl back. What a bloody kind of governance!
Trump is such an idiot, he thought he could hike spending and make up the difference with sanctions and tariffs.
The generals will just have to remind The Don that we don’t want to be fighting them “over here” and I’m sure he will come to his(their)senses.
All those brand new African bases? Shut em down. Take all the soldiers out of Korea … Peace is upon us! Japan too does not need much defense, nor does Europe. Both are richer than us, really.
800 foreign bases … Surely almost all are needless if we want to actually be “America First?”
It would only cost a few billion to build an impenetrable wall around the Pentagon.
I’m not sure that buyer’s remorse is what’s really going on here. Trump has always pretended to be an America Firster when he’s really an Israel Firster. Yes, it would be great if we had an actual defensive military, but then we’d have to bite the budget bullet and cut Israel off. Not going to happen.
Occasionally Trump does have a lucid moment, when he actually gets it. But, he also knows that he’s just an organ-grinder’s monkey. In the end, he’ll do whatever he’s told to do. Bankrupting the USA is part of the Zionist plan for Greater Israel and so far, it’s working just fine. Jared, Bibi, and the neocons are all looking forward to never-ending war which will bring on the Fourth Turning that Bannon was so fond of, a “transformational conflict” that will totally upend the old order and initiate their hoped-for New World Order, one characterized by economic chaos, social upheaval, and tyranny.
Oh, I left out depopulation, getting rid of us useless eaters. That’s part of it, too. Heaven help us.
The entire planet could be transformed into the Garden of Eden and they’d still want their bombs for their “national security interests”, in case God reneged.
Sad part is, is the budget even real ? with the latest stories of failed audits over decades, who knows how much they actually spend ?