 "Trump administration orders Pentagon to plan 8% defence budget cuts")
The US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has ordered senior officials at the Pentagon and the US military to develop plans for cutting 8 per cent from the defence budget in each of the next five years, according to a report from The Washington Post citing a memo and officials familiar with the matter.
A proposal likely to face strong internal resistance as well as bipartisan opposition in Congress.
According to the memo, Hegseth instructed that the proposed cuts be prepared by 24 February. The memo also lists 17 categories that the Trump administration wants to exclude from the expenditure cuts.
Among the areas where Trump wants to exclude spending are operations at the southern US border, the modernisation of nuclear weapons and missile defence, and the acquisition of one-way attack drones and other munitions.
If the proposal is adopted, it will cut tens of billions of dollars from defence spending in each of the next five years.
The memo also proposes continued funding for key regional headquarters such as Indo-Pacific Command, Northern Command, and Space Command. However, the memo does not include European Command, which has been central to the US strategy in Ukraine, Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, or Africa Command, which manages US troops in Africa.
“President Trump’s charge to DoD is clear: achieve peace through strength,” Hegseth wrote in the memo.
This initiative, if implemented, will aim to save approximately $68 billion from the current $850 billion military budget.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDoge’s proposal to eliminate unnecessary expenditures
This proposal comes after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s recent collaboration with the Department of Defence to eliminate unnecessary expenditures while maintaining military readiness.
In addition to defence budget reductions, DOGE is reviewing various other federal agencies to streamline operations and reduce costs.
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