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The Pentagon's rush to rearm its Mideast forces makes it less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, administration and congressional officials say.
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The White House is seeking a record-shattering Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion for the next fiscal year, the largest year-over-year increase in a presidential military spending request since World War II. The United States already has the world's largest military budget at roughly $1 trillion, more than the combined budgets of the next nine highest-spending countries. The Trump administration's budget request includes funding for F-35 stealth fighter jets, new warships and President Trump's "Golden Dome" missile defense shield, among other priorities.
"All it means is buying more weapons for more," says Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. "It's beyond the wildest dreams of the military-industrial complex." The budget proposal also includes deep cuts to social programs.
We also speak with Josh Paul, a former State Department official involved in arms sales who resigned in 2023 over Israel-Palestine policy. He notes that the $1.5 trillion figure does not even include the costs of the Iran war. "It's just a vast amount of money in a way that is reckless by an administration that is corrupt," says Paul.
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