Kateryna Chornovol01:51, 20.02.25

The reduction will take place over five years.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered top Pentagon and military leaders to develop plans to cut the defense budget by 8% over the next five years.

The Washington Post reports this . It is noted that such a proposal will undoubtedly encounter internal resistance and sharp bipartisan opposition in Congress.

Hegseth ordered the proposed cuts to be ready by Feb. 24. His memo lists 17 categories the Trump administration wants to eliminate from the budget, including operations on the U.S. southern border, nuclear weapons and missile defense modernization, and the acquisition of submarines, unilateral strike drones and other munitions.

The publication emphasizes that the Pentagon’s 2025 budget is about $850 billion, and there is a broad consensus on Capitol Hill that more spending is needed to deter threats — particularly from China and Russia. If fully adopted, the proposed cuts would amount to tens of billions of dollars in each of the next five years and would mark the largest effort to reduce Pentagon spending since 2013.

Hegseth tried to portray the proposed cuts as a continuation of Trump’s “peace through strength” policy. Trump has previously increased military spending and bragged about those efforts. And Republicans, including Hegseth himself, have criticized Democrats for years for not spending enough on national defense.

“The time to prepare is over – we must act urgently to restore the warrior spirit, rebuild our military, and restore deterrence. Our budget will provide the resources we need to fight, end unnecessary defense spending, cut excessive bureaucracy, and spur meaningful reforms, including progress on auditing,” the Defense Secretary’s directive says.

He said the military branches should fund what they need at “wartime rates” and offset that financially by cutting “low-impact items” such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and climate change research.

Also at risk are European Command, which plays a key role in overseeing U.S. support for Ukraine during its three-year war with Russia; Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East; and Africa Command, which oversees several thousand U.S. troops spread across the continent.

“The snub of the European Command is sure to draw attention abroad, where Høgseth has repeatedly called on NATO allies in the past week to do more to bolster their own defenses. Echoing Trump, he said European countries should spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense,” the authors add.

(C)UNIAN 2025