Trump warns of 'many evil forces', US spends record $1 trillion on defense
US President Donald Trump has announced that his administration has approved a record defense budget of about $1,000 billion, despite implementing a campaign to cut federal spending across the board.
Mr. Trump made this statement during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on April 7.
“We’re very focused on saving money, but the military is an area where we have to invest and we have to stay strong because there are so many bad forces out there,” Mr. Trump said. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it.”
“We are committed to using every dollar of taxpayer money wisely – focusing on combat capability and combat readiness,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stressed.
Mr. Hegseth’s predecessor in the Joe Biden administration, Mr. Lloyd Austin, had previously proposed increasing the defense budget by about $50 billion more than expected for fiscal year 2026.
In contrast to Trump and Austin, the Pentagon proposed in February to cut defense spending by 8%, but prioritized the budget for modern technologies such as drones, submarines, defense operations at the US-Mexico border, as well as campaigns related to deterring China.
The current budget for the US Department of Defense is $895.2 billion. Mr. Trump’s pledge to increase the military budget comes as his administration, through the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is implementing widespread cuts to federal spending. Under the leadership of Elon Musk, DOGE has cut about 280,000 federal employees in recent months.
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