United States Defense Thread

[MARKMILES77]

Pete Hegseth has been forced into damage control mode releasing a video about DOGE in the DOD, the $50 billion savings to be made in 2026 and the firing of DOD employees. He spins it as just removing DEI and Woke leading to a more "lethal badass" military. Might leave you thinking they are just moving that $50 Billion from one part of the DOD to another part of the DOD.
But the key statement is from 3:58 to 4:18:

We are pulling around 8% or $50 Billion from the Biden Budget We're planning....this is planning for this year that we will move away from Woke Biden era non lethal programs and instead spend that money on President Trump's America First, Peace through Strength priorities for our national budget.

Not exactly a commitment to keep the money within the DOD.

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[Todjaeger]

Regarding the current POTUS and proposals to 'trim' the US defence budget... The current POTUS has no legal authority to do that, apart from vetoing any relevant spending bills or budgets passed by Congress. Even then, Presidential vetoes can be overrode by Congress. Given how significant and massive the cuts would have to be to achieve anything nearly as significant as a 50% reduction, and how hard such cuts would hit virtually every single state, I could easily see bi-partisan support to override and/or ignore attempts by the current administration to make such cuts.

If administration officials still try and take things too far, I could even see some officials end up getting enough bi-partisan opposition to the point where the officials are removed and permanently barred from ever holding any future office or security clearance.

 

[SolarisKenzo]

POTUS is just making things up.

50% defense budget cut is just bs, no one can do that.
Also, nice math when he says he wants China and Russia to do the same.
Their military budget is just a fraction of US one, which means they would be very happy to cut 50% of their budget if Trump really wanted to cut his own by half.
Chinese and Russia would slash basically 15-20% compared to the US.

The real problem is that, we can clearly say that at this point, most of the administration has no idea whatsoever of what they're talking about.
Which wouldn't be a huge problem for me since I'm European, but it actually is because of obvious reasons.

The fact that the most powerful man on earth can just go around and talk nonsense, saying that Spain is a South American BRICS country, that Germans should vote for the Nazis and that he is basically making up half of things he says is just frightening.

 

[MARKMILES77]

,

French Magazine, Le Point is claiming their sources tell them Trump is planning to attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9.
Not sure if it is to celebrate Victory in WW2 or in Ukraine?

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Trump will be in Moscow for end of war commemorations.

 

[Sandson41]

, View attachment 52324

French Magazine, Le Point is claiming their sources tell them Trump is planning to attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9.
Not sure if it is to celebrate Victory in WW2 or in Ukraine?

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Maybe they'll let him drive that single T-34. Only tank they've had the past 2 years.

Remember when he wanted a US Army parade in Washington? He's always wanted to be in a parade.

I'll be interested to see how many US career personnel take up offers like Australia's to emigrate and re-enlist instead of stick with a Russian allied force in the coming years. Propping up Putin is not what most of them enlisted for.

Surely it won't be good for retention, on top of the other changes coming into effect soon.

 

[MARKMILES77]

Trump is already being asked by reporters is he going to Moscow.
Said No but still a long time till May 9!