Donald Trump announced Monday that he will propose a $1 trillion military budget as part of his 2026 federal spending request. “One trillion dollars . . . nobody’s seen anything like it,” Trump said. “We’re very cost conscious, but the military is something that we have to build.” Later that day, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth expressed his excitement, posting “COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar [Pentagon] budget. Trump is rebuilding our military — and FAST.” He added at the end of the post, “PS: we intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely.”
Trump’s “cost conscious” comment — made while boasting about spending a trillion dollars in one year on the military — is absurd. Hegseth’s claim that he’ll “spend every taxpayer dollar wisely” is impossible. The Pentagon has never passed an audit. Last year’s audit found it couldn’t account for 68 percent of its budgetary resources and 44 percent of its assets. How can Hegseth say a dollar was spent wisely when there’s a two-in-three chance the Pentagon can’t provide documentation for how it was spent? And how can he claim the Pentagon needs to buy something when it can’t account for nearly half the stuff it already has?
Another question: Where is the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)? If there’s a worthy target for DOGE leader Elon Musk’s chainsaw austerity, it’s the Pentagon. But that’s pretty much the only place Musk’s DOGE isn’t touching. Instead of eliminating waste at the one federal agency that can’t pass an audit, Musk is eliminating “waste” at all the agencies that can. For example, military contracts make up 60 percent of all federal contracts but account for less than 0.05 percent of the contracts DOGE has terminated. Investigations have found systematic profiteering by contractors on nearly everything the Pentagon buys. Last year, Lockheed Martin — the Pentagon’s top contractor — spent $7…
Auteur: Stephen Semler
