Trump’s former acting defense secretary calls for 'dramatic' cuts to 'outrageously high' Pentagon budget

During the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush years, members of Republican presidential administrations often used the phrase "peace through strength" when arguing in favor of a large military budget and an interventionist foreign policy. But Christopher C. Miller, who served as acting secretary of defense during the final months of the Trump Administration, is calling for the United States to "dramatically" reduce its military budget.

During an interview for CBS News’ podcast "The Takeout," Miller — a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel — told host Major Garrett that the United States’ military budget could be cut by as much as half.

The 57-year-old Miller argued, "We have created an entire enterprise that focuses economically on creating crisis to justify outrageously high defense spending. You have to starve the beast to make people come out of their cubby holes and start thinking creatively."

During the interview, Miller also urged politicians to quit obsessing over China.

Miller told Garrett, "I think by constantly harping on the fact that China is the new threat and we’re going to go to war with them someday actually plays right into Chairman Xi’s hands and the Chinese Communist Party. They need to have an enemy that they can, you know, focus their people’s anger and attention on, and I think we provide them that opportunity by constantly harking on the fact that the Chinese are the greatest threat to America and what not."

Miller, author of the new book "Soldier Secretary: Warnings from the Battlefield & the Pentagon about America’s Most Dangerous Enemies," joined Trump's administration on November 9, 2020 after then-President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.