Republicans, who traditionally support robust defense spending, took the plans in stride, despite GOP lawmakers wanting to add $100 billion to the annual defense spending bill. Any cuts that impact districts where ships or arms are produced would likely put the Pentagon on a collision course with Congress.
The cuts, ordered in a Tuesday memo, would seek to shave off $50 billion from Defense Department coffers in the next fiscal year in a dramatic realignment of defense spending to fund President Trump's priorities, including an Iron Dome-like missile defense system for the U.S. and beefed-up border security.
Democrats say the effort is a sham that will not only fail to save taxpayers money but also undermine America's defense capabilities in an increasingly hostile world.
"These types of hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts would betray our military forces and their families and make America less safe," Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement.
"I'm all for cutting programs that don't work, but this proposal is deeply misguided. Secretary Hegseth's rushed, arbitrary strategy would have negative impacts on our security, economy, and industrial base."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), however, said the Pentagon effort is simply the new administration reviewing the entire budget.
In a statement, Wicker noted that he has spoken with Trump repeatedly and that "he intends to deliver a desperately needed military rebuild and Pentagon reform agenda."
In the memo, obtained by The Hill, Hegseth outlines cuts to military commands in Europe and the Middle East but preserves or boosts spending for 17 priority areas that appear to indicate a shift to defense issues closer to the U.S. homeland. They include border security, cybersecurity, nuclear modernization, submarines, drones and "combating transnational criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere."
The funding shift puts the Trump administration at odds with Congress, where Republicans had planned to increase the Pentagon's $850 billion budget by $100 billion — part of a package meant to enact Trump's wider agenda.
Should the administration implement an annual 8 percent cut over the next five years, that will add up to roughly $300 billion less in military spending through 2030.
The sheer size of the cuts, initiated by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency — which has sought to gut federal agencies under the guise of rooting out government waste and inefficiency — has unnerved lawmakers.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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