Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) claimed that the Pentagon is “overbloated” and due for cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency.
The Pentagon has failed six consecutive audits. According to the department, it will be able to account for its spending in 2027, the year former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin projected the department should spend close to a trillion dollars over a fiscal year.
“At the end of the day, DOGE is going to help there. Pete Hegseth has welcomed DOGE to come into the military. We have to start in the Pentagon. We need to make a ‘Trigon,’ three sides instead of five sides in the Pentagon,” Tuberville said on Fox News’s Ingraham Angle on Wednesday. “It is way too big, way overbloated. They have what, 30[,000] — 40,000 people in the Pentagon then 100,000 people across the street in Arlington that are making tons of money. We have to cut back and do it for the warfighter. Help the warfighter, build equipment, do the things we need to do. We can get the cuts, but we need to continue to do what we — what Pete has done, cut out all the bloat and all the DEI. Get our military back to a killing machine.”
There is already a notable shift in the U.S. military, with the Army reporting “the most productive December in 15 years” with 346 soldiers enlisted every day, an increase that has been credited to President Donald Trump’s 2024 win. This came at a critical moment for the military, which had a recruitment deficit of about 42,000.
Austin left his position with a five-year spending plan including a projection to spend as much as $1 trillion on defense as soon as 2028. Meanwhile, then-President Joe Biden increased the 2025 budget by just 1%.
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The United States is spending just 3.6% of gross domestic product, or $866 billion, on defense spending, according to a budget analysis from Princeton Policy Advisors.
President Donald Trump has floated a requirement that NATO countries spend at least 5% of GDP on defense to remain in the alliance. Only 23 of the 32 allies met the current 2% benchmark. Another five allies were over 3%.