Trump Pumping Up Military Industrial Complex with Trillion-Dollar Budget

Earlier this month, President Trump gave Americans some big news regarding the country’s defense spending. He announced the first trillion-dollar defense budget for 2026 to ensure the American military keeps an edge over other potentially hostile forces. But the proposed raise in military spending has also made critics question Trump’s move, leading to the question of whether Trump is now overfeeding the same animal that has been grazing unchecked in the collective economic field for decades.

Trump spoke of the first $1 trillion defense budget on April 7 at a press event in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The same day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Trump’s announcement on his X page, adding, “We intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely — on lethality and readiness.”

Given the failure of the Pentagon to pass every single one of its annual audits since 2018, Hegseth’s promise of spending every dollar wisely didn’t inspire much confidence among critics of big budgets for the Defense Department. Former congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who now runs a podcast, commented that his enthusiasm for Trump’s second term has dampened after seeing Trump’s plans for this level of spending. Paul’s fellow commentator Chris Rossini shared the same feeling and said that if the military had been efficient, their current budget would be cut by over 50% and not increased to a trillion dollars.

“So it’s starting to feel that we’ve been duped,” added Rossini.

Independent journalist and commentator Glenn Greenwald highlighted Trump’s flip-flop on the issue of military budget by showing the President’s call for sweeping budget cuts at the Pentagon just a couple of months ago. Media back then reported on Trump cutting as much as 8 percent of the defense budget every year for the next five years. Greenwald also played a video clip of Trump telling the media in February this year that one of the first things he wants to propose in a meeting with the Chinese and Russian presidents this year is to cut the military budget in half.

Chris Brunet, an independent journalist, referenced the recent report of Republicans in Congress moving to cut billions from Medicaid as he posted on X about Trump’s announcement of a trillion dollars for the Pentagon. Brunet, while saying he hates to sound like a liberal, called Trump’s defense spending plan “retarded” or outright “evil.”

Stephen Semler had pointed out in an op-ed in The Hill last year (April 24, 2024) that Congress is usually quick to approve unconditionally any defense budget raise because elected representatives in Congress are beneficiaries of the military establishment. He wrote:

“For instance, before voting to authorize $886 billion in military spending this year, each House member had received on average $20,000 in political donations from military contractors this election cycle.”

With the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) established under Trump in his second term and headed by Elon Musk, cutting waste and saving taxpayer money gathered a great deal of support among conservatives who want smaller government and more in people’s pockets. However, Trump’s announcement of pumping up the defense spending has dealt a blow to the hopes of bringing down federal spending anytime soon.