(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert G. Salesses said in a statement on Wednesday night that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of Pentagon spending to realign spending to fund priorities of the Trump administration.
The statement from Salesses came after a report from The Washington Post said that Hegseth ordered a plan to cut Pentagon spending by 8% each year over the next five years. But according to the statement from Salesses, the idea is to redirect spending and not actually make cuts to the budget.
“Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” Salesses said.
“The Department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the Department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at 8% of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” he added.
On Thursday, Hegseth said that the Trump administration would be taking $50 billion away from “woke Biden-era non-lethal programs and instead spend that money on President Trump’s America First, peace through strength priorities.”
Hegseth criticized The Washington Post for reporting on misrepresenting his memo, which he said was “clear as a bell.” The Pentagon chief said he wanted the “biggest, most badass military on the planet.”
In his statement, Salesses said that through the Trump administration’s budget, the Pentagon “will once again resource warfighting and cease unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called “climate change” and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy.”
Salesses said spending priorities from the Trump administration include the “Iron Dome for America,” referring to an order from the president to establish a major new missile defense system, a project that would be a boon for the weapons makers and likely start a new arms race. Trump has also backed a budget plan drawn up by House Republicans that would increase military spending by $100 billion.
According to Breaking Defense, the memo issued by Hegseth included 17 categories of spending that would be exempt from the offsets:
- Southwest Border Activities
- Combating Transnational Criminal Organizations in the Western Hemisphere
- Audit
- Nuclear Modernization (including NC3)
- Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs)
- Virginia-class Submarines
- Executable Surface Ships
- Homeland Missile Defense
- One-Way Attack/Autonomous Systems
- Counter-small UAS Initiatives
- Priority Critical Cybersecurity
- Munitions
- Core Readiness, including full DRT funding
- Munitions and Energetics Organic Industrial Bases
- Executable INDOPACOM MILCON (military construction in the Asia Pacific)
- Combatant Command support agency funding for INDOPACOM, NORTHCOM, SPACECOM, STRATCOM, CYBERCOM, and TRANSCOM
- Medical Private-Sector CareThis article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
