President Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of “peace through strength,” surprised some in Washington when he suggested that he might support cutting the US defense budget by as much as 50 percent, presumably in concert with commensurate nuclear arms and budget reductions by Russia and China. The Washington Post then reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to prepare for budget cuts of 8 percent per year for each of the next five years. However, subsequent reporting and comments by Hegseth suggested the Pentagon was pursuing a reprioritization of spending rather than a reduction in overall defense spending.
These mixed signals come at a moment when the United States needs much greater strength to preserve the peace. Aggressive dictatorships, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, are cooperating more closely than ever to undermine American leadership. Meanwhile, US defense spending has fallen, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), to near its lowest point in the 80 years since World War II.
Read the whole article at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
