U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday bragged to West Point's graduating class that he has refused to cut Pentagon spending and touted his push for an annual military budget of $1 trillion, arguing that other programs should be on the chopping block instead.
"Some people say, 'Could you cut it back?' I said, 'I'm not cutting 10 cents,'" the president said of Pentagon spending during his bizarre, campaign-style commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy.
"We can cut plenty of other things," Trump added, without specifying what he sees as better targets for cuts than the Pentagon, a sprawling morass of waste and abuse that recently failed its seventh consecutive audit.
Trump's remarks came after House Republicans, with his support, passed a massive budget reconciliation package that includes more than $100 billion in additional spending for the U.S. military and around $1 trillion in combined cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The military spending boost, which critics slammed as unnecessary and detrimental, is aimed at promoting Trump priorities such as his proposed "Golden Dome," an idea that experts have dismissed as a "fantasy." It is also a major opportunity for profiteering: Reuters reported last month that Elon Musk's SpaceX has emerged as one of the frontrunners to build a "crucial part" of the system.
With the $1 trillion that Trump is seeking to allocate to the military in the coming fiscal year, the U.S. could erase all medical debt, slash child poverty, end homelessness, tackle the nation's nursing and teacher shortages, replace all of the country's lead pipes, and build nationwide high-speed rail, according to an analysis by the National Priorities Project (NPP).
"A trillion-dollar investment in ordinary Americans is not radical; it would effectively help prevent crime, improve security, and raise standards of living across the country. And it's what most people actually want," wrote NPP research analyst Hanna Homestead. "Poll after poll shows Americans would rather have their tax dollars spent on public services than on Pentagon contractors, and would prefer policymakers prioritize spending on healthcare, education, housing, and infrastructure—not the military."