Pentagon chief hails first $1 trillion defense budget — ApsnyNews World News

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pledged to boost the US military’s lethality with President Donald Trump’s upcoming record $1 trillion defense budget.

Trump announced the unprecedented defense funding bill in a meeting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. While the current administration is “very cost-conscious,” the military stands out as something it wants to build up, he said.

Hegseth hailed the president’s militarization push in a post on his personal X account the following day.

“President @realDonaldTrump is rebuilding our military — and FAST,” he wrote, thanking Trump for the decision. “We intend to spend every taxpayer dollar wisely — on lethality and readiness.”

The militarization effort comes as the Trump administration is trimming excess spending from the federal budget through its newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Under its head Elon Musk, DOGE has seen around 280,000 federal workers laid off in the past few months.

Approved last December, the current US Defense Department budget is more than $895 billion. China, the world’s next biggest defense spender, has allocated $256 billion for defense in 2025, while the third largest, Russia, has budgeted $157 billion.

Despite the massive budget, the Pentagon failed an audit for the seventh time in a row last year, failing to account for more than $150 billion in spending.

Even with the unprecedented increase in the Pentagon budget, the $1 trillion would not meet the 5% of annual GDP NATO defense spending goal that Trump has pushed for among European allies in the US-led military bloc.

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