Washington (AFP) – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a review of the department’s 2026 budget to reallocate $50 billion in funds, the Pentagon said Wednesday, following reports that he had directed deep, multi-year cuts to military spending. US media reported that Hegseth directed senior Defense Department leaders to plan for cuts that could slash the defense budget by eight percent annually, or approximately $290 billion over the next five years. The Pentagon did not directly deny those reports; instead, it described an effort aimed at removing funding from programs favored by former president Joe Biden and redirecting it toward those advocated by his successor, Donald Trump.
“Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense,” Robert Salesses, performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, stated. “The department will develop a list of potential offsets that could be used to fund these priorities, as well as to refocus the department on its core mission of deterring and winning wars. The offsets are targeted at eight percent of the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” the statement added.
A report from the Washington Post described a memo from Hegseth, dated Tuesday, that ordered the development of plans for an eight percent cut from the defense budget in each of the next five years. Hegseth’s memo specified that the proposed cuts must be formulated by February 24, including 17 categories that Trump wants to be exempted, such as operations at the US border with Mexico and the modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense. The memo also prioritized funding for Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command, but did not mention others, such as European Command, which has been pivotal in shaping US strategy throughout the war in Ukraine.
The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, according to the Post. “Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued. The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is approximately $850 billion, and if the cuts described in the memo are fully implemented, it would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to around $560 billion by the end of the five-year period.
Trump has vowed to slash government spending, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — tasked with carrying out that effort — reportedly visited the Pentagon last week. Hegseth expressed support for DOGE’s work at the Pentagon in a Tuesday post on X: “Let’s get to work. DOGE the waste; Double-Down on warriors,” he wrote.
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