{"id":313688,"date":"2026-03-02T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313688"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:12:34","slug":"ridiculous-pentagon-doesnt-even-know-what-to-do-with-extra-500-billion-trump-wants-to-spend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/03\/ridiculous-pentagon-doesnt-even-know-what-to-do-with-extra-500-billion-trump-wants-to-spend\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ridiculous\u2019: Pentagon Doesn\u2019t even Know What to Do with Extra $500 Billion Trump Wants to Spend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addresses a group of National Guard troops on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.\u00a0 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNot another cent for private defense contractors and forever wars,\u201d wrote Rep. Pramila Jayapal.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

23 Feb 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Pentagon<\/a> officials are reportedly struggling to devise a plan to spend the extra $500 billion that US President Donald Trump<\/a> wants to give the bloated, fraud-ridden<\/a> agency in the next fiscal year, vindicating criticism of the funding proposal as immensely wasteful.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/em> reported<\/a> over the weekend that \u201cWhite House<\/a> aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges surrounding where to put the money, because the amount is so large.\u201d The extra $500 billion, endorsed<\/a> by the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, would push annual US military<\/a> spending to a staggering $1.5 trillion after the Trump administration<\/a> and congressional Republicans<\/a> enacted unprecedented cuts<\/a> to federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n

The Post<\/em> noted that \u201cthe increase in military spending<\/a> alone would amount to one of the biggest federal programs. One Democratic plan to expand Medicare<\/a> to cover dental, vision, and hearing benefits would cost $350 billion over the next decade, by comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget<\/a> has estimated<\/a> that a $1.5 trillion annual military budget would add $5.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous,\u201d Rep. Pramila Jayapal<\/a> (D-Wash.) wrote<\/a> in response to the Post<\/em>\u2018s reporting. \u201cOr we could build 3 million new homes, lower the Medicare age, or add dental, vision, and hearing coverage. Not another cent for private defense contractors and forever wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Post<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has been grappling with how to rapidly replenish expensive munitions that it has relied on heavily, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, Patriot missile-defense interceptors and ship-launched munitions known as Standard Missile-6s, or SM-6s.<\/p>\n

It also is wrestling with how to upgrade its Cold War-era nuclear weapons<\/a> program with expensive next-generation systems like the B-21 bomber and the Columbia-class submarine. The aircraft, with an estimated cost of about $700 million each, is expected to replace the Air Force\u2019s fleet of B-1 and B-2 bombers. The Columbia-class submarines are expected to cost at least $9 billion each.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trump is pushing for another $500 billion for the Pentagon as he moves the US to the brink of war with Iran, potentially another expensive and deadly conflict in the Middle East. The New York Times<\/a><\/em> reported<\/a> Sunday that \u201cTrump has told advisers that if diplomacy or any initial targeted US attack does not lead Iran to give in to his demands that it give up its nuclear program, he will consider a much bigger attack in coming months intended to drive that country\u2019s leaders from power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has failed eight consecutive audits<\/a> of its books and is the only major federal agency that has not passed an independent audit. Roughly half<\/a> of the Pentagon\u2019s annual spending goes to private military contractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s call for a $500 billion increase in Pentagon spending is a terrible idea that would starve the American people of resources needed to address critical issues across the U.S. American voters are fed up with inflation<\/a>, health care costs, housing prices, and unemployment<\/a>,\u201d Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen<\/a>, said<\/a> earlier this month in response to the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pentagon has repeatedly failed audits and has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars on fraudulent defense contractors who abuse the system and steal from taxpayers,\u201d said Weissman. \u201cTrump has added to this wasteful legacy by spending vast sums of money on national guard deployments across the US, military intervention in Venezuela<\/a>, and by pushing a \u2018Golden Dome\u2019 boondoggle. Congress must stop pouring more money into a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget beset with fraud and waste, at the expense of priority human needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

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Jake Johnson is a staff writer for<\/i> Common Dreams.<\/p>\n

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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original – commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Feb 2026 – Trump is pushing for another $500 billion for the Pentagon as he moves the U.S. to the brink of war with Iran. But Pentagon officials are reportedly uncertain about where to put the money, \u201cbecause the amount is so large.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":313690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2999],"tags":[867,742,767,3530,1105,112,249,95,1790,481],"class_list":["post-313688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-war-racket-destruction-capitalism","tag-anglo-america","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-military-capitalism","tag-military-industrial-complex","tag-pentagon","tag-trump","tag-us-military","tag-war-is-a-racket","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313692,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313688\/revisions\/313692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}