Trump administration orders Pentagon to identify $50 billion in cuts

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to plan to cut defense spending by 8% annually over the next five years. The aim is to find around $50 billion in reductions.

• The reductions will be used for programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities. They include border security, domestic missile defense and ending DEI programs.

• The Trump administration received support from an unlikely ally, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who agreed with the spending cuts. He suggested that savings should be used for Social Security benefits and VA health care.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to develop plans to cut defense spending by 8% annually over the next five years. In a statement from Pentagon spokesman Robert G. Salesses, the Department of Defense (DOD) intends to find around $50 billion in reductions that can be used on “programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities.” 

These include border security, building the “Iron Dome for America” domestic missile defense system, and ending DEI programs and preferencing.

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“The Department of Defense is conducting this review to ensure we are making the best use of the taxpayers’ dollars in a way that delivers on President Trump’s defense priorities efficiently and effectively,” the statement read.

Salesses said the budget realignment would “revive the warrior ethos” and continue to walk back policies from the Biden administration. 

“Through our budgets, the Department of Defense will once again resource warfighting and cease unnecessary spending that set our military back under the previous administration, including through so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs, as well as excessive bureaucracy,” Salesses said.

Trump’s administration gained an unlikely ally in the effort to reform Pentagon spending Wednesday night. 

“Every once in awhile, I DO agree with Trump,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., posted to X. ”He’s right: when the Pentagon cannot complete an independent audit, we should cut military spending by 8% a year over the next 5 years.”

Sanders said savings should be spent on increasing Social Security benefits and strengthening veterans’ health care.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers were at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Feb. 18, collecting lists of the military’s probationary employees in what Hegseth called preparation to “cut the fat.”