Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faced some heat on Wednesday after directing the Department of Defense (DOD) to find $50 billion in programs to cut next year so the money can be spent on President Donald Trump‘s priorities, The Associated Press reports.
Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Hegseth’s comments on Wednesday were a departure from when he suggested last week, while traveling in Europe, that he would support backing a bigger budget, CNN reported.
“I think the U.S. needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary’s directive also aligned him with some progressive lawmakers across the aisle, who have historically favored making cuts to the military’s budget in order to fund programs like Social Security.
What To Know
Robert Salesses, who is performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, highlighted Hegseth’s directive in a statement, singling out “woke programs” and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
Salesses said in his statement that the cuts Hegseth wants to make will help fund President Donald Trump’s agenda and priorities like building an Iron Dome in the United States and helping to secure the border.
The $50 billion in cuts Hegseth is seeking account for roughly eight percent of the military’s budget, the AP reported.
It’s not immediately clear which programs could be on the chopping block as a result of the defense secretary’s directive.
“To achieve our mandate from President Trump, we are guided by his priorities including Securing our borders, building the Iron Dome for America, and ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” Salesses said in his statement.
He added that Hegseth has ordered a review to identify “offsets” from the Biden administration’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year “that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense.”
But the defense secretary’s directive was met with pushback from both sides of the aisle.
Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, said on X (formerly Twitter), “Congress is not going to cut our military by 40%.”
Mark Hertling, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, said on X, “Hegseth orders military to draw up plans for 40% total budget cuts over the next fives years, 8% per year. Exponentially worse than sequestration that crippled the military in 2011.”
Bacon’s and Hertling’s references to the 40 percent figure came in response to reports from the New York Times and the Washington Post which cited a memo saying Hegseth had ordered officials to draw up plans to cut 8 percent from the defense budget in each of the next five years.
The New York Times columnist David French also said on X, “This is totally absurd. We’re at the onset of a second Cold War that could go hot over Taiwan, and Hegseth wants to gut the defense budget. 8 percent cuts per year would decimate the military, exactly when China is rising.”
Democratic Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts told CNN‘sAnderson Cooper, “Well, look, I’ve been a critic of Pentagon spending for a long time and I think the Pentagon could spend its money more efficiently. I think we should be investing in the modern, cheaper, smaller, nimble systems like drones and autonomous underwater vehicles, as opposed to the big heavy old things like tanks and aircraft carriers.”
But he added that the Trump administration “can’t get out of its own way.”
“Trump himself said that he wants to raise the Pentagon’s budget by about 100 or 150 billion dollars,” Moulton, a former Democratic presidential contender, told CNN. “Then the very next day said he wants to cut the budget in half. The defense secretary says a different thing every day of the week. “
They “have no plan to keep the country safe,” Moulton said.
What People Are Saying
David Axelrod, who served as the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, said on CNN Wednesday: “I think we ought to put this in the context of what’s going on the domestic side because right now they are trying, desperately trying to figure out a way to cut the budget enough to be able to pass through this reconciliation process a huge tax cut.
“The Freedom Caucus and the House is demanding $1.5 trillion dollars in cuts, and it’s very hard to cut the budget unless you cut deeply into the Pentagon, to cut it at that level. So, I suspect that that may be animating some of what’s going on here,” Axelrod said.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote on X on Wednesday: “Every once in awhile, I DO agree with Trump. 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. These savings should go to increasing Social Security benefits & strengthening VA health care.”
John Hasson, a Townhall contributor and self-described conservative, wrote on X on Wednesday: “Pentagon budget cuts are a horrible idea … Our military is already woefully unprepared for a large scale war. Cut bad projects and waste, sure. But then use that money on stuff we need.”
What Happens Next
Hegseth has directed the Pentagon to come up with a list of programs that can be cut so that the money can be directed elsewhere for fiscal year 2026, which starts on October 1.
The post Hegseth Faces Backlash After Proposing Pentagon Cuts To Fund Trump’s Agenda appeared first on Newsweek.
