President Donald Trump loves a big number. Last year, even as Elon Musk’s DOGE was hacking away at alleged inefficient and fraudulent federal spending, Trump proposed a record-breaking $1 trillion defense budget. Even though the budget Congress passed fell short of Trump’s proposal, the almost $900 billion authorization was still the biggest ever. Even so, Trump said in January that his next proposal number would be 50% higher than the last one.
Among many, many other problems with a $1.5 trillion Defense Department budget, one in particular stands out: The military has no idea what it would do with that much money. That’s not hyperbole, based on a recent report from The Washington Post, citing sources who spoke anonymously to characterize internal matters. Trump’s extragavent proposal is apparently causing a delay in the White House’s annual budget proposal:
Since Trump agreed to the higher number, White House aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges about where to put the money, because the amount is so large, the people said. The White House is more than two weeks behind its statutory deadline to send its budget proposal to Congress, in part because it is unclear how precisely to spend the additional $500 billion, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Senior Pentagon officials have consulted with former senior defense officials as they grapple with the challenge, said one person familiar with the matter. Part of the discussion centers on how much emphasis should go into buying weapons the military already uses versus investing in high-end technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that the Pentagon envisions as part of its future.
An agency being flooded with more cash than can be reasonably spent in a year wouldn’t be the worst problem in the world. But when that agency is the Pentagon, which can already act as a budgetary black hole, it becomes deeply worrying to learn that Trump wants to turn a massive fiscal firehose its way. Trying to give that much more money to an agency that’s already overfunded says a lot about Trump’s misplaced priorities.
There are four major buckets within the DOD budget that the new funding could go toward: operations and maintenance, military personnel, procurement, and research and development. It’s apparently not clear, though, which areas would benefit most from such a sudden surge in money. The administration’s own National Security Strategy, which calls for drawing down U.S. involvement in Asia and the Middle East, makes it even more confusing to imagine what that much surplus could be spent on.
Among many, many other problems with a $1.5 trillion Defense Department budget, one in particular stands out: The military has no idea what it would do with that much money.
Though Trump announced a desired $1.5 trillion budget on social media, according to the Post, the idea came from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shares the president’s obsession with optics.
“We are rebuilding the arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth told Lockheed Martin employees on a Texas assembly line building F-35 fighter jets. (The Trump administration recently sold a number of such jets to Saudi Arabia.) Tellingly, Hegseth said the staggering top line is “a message to the world” and that the funding would be used “wisely … [to] make sure we’re squeezing everything possible into the best capabilities in the world.” Hegseth emphasized the massive budget request at a factory building the U.S. military’s most expensive and overbudget plane. And as for his claim that the money would be used wisely, let’s not forget that the Government Accountability Office says the Defense Department is the “only major federal agency that has never gotten a ‘clean’ audit opinion (i.e., when auditors find that financial statements are presented fairly).” The amount of money that already disappears into the Pentagon’s maw is troubling enough without adding $500 billion on top of it. Consider that White House budget chief Russell Vought, as head of the Office of Management and Budget, has overseen the process of firing tens of thousands of federal employees and tried to slash billions in life-saving government programs from the budget. According to the Post, Vought was one of the main members of the administration to push back on Hegseth’s pitch, but to no avail. We should all hope that that whatever budget Hegseth sends to the Pentagon gets drastically reduced before Congress makes it law. It’s ridiculous and discouraging to see the Pentagon be handed more money than it knows what to do with at a time when even a small percentage of that new spending could change millions of Americans’ lives for the better.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
