Budget of hundreds of billions
Hegseth arranges great redistribution in the Pentagon
This audio version was artificially generated. More information | Send feedback
Trump has been forwarding the state apparatus since taking office. Musk strokes government spending on his commission. Defense Minister Hegseth apparently wants to accuse the Tech billionaire in the Pentagon.
US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth orders billions of redistribution in the Pentagon – according to a media report, savings are also planned. Hegseth ordered a review of rejection of eight percent from the financial year 2026 from existing programs, the Pentagon said. This is around $ 50 billion, around 48 billion euros. These are programs by the then President Joe Biden, who instead are to be spent on the security policy priorities of US President Donald Trump. The Pentagon should “concentrate on its core task again, to deter and win wars”.
In the explanation published by the Pentagon, expenditure on climate protection measures and bureaucracy is criticized. The Pentagon attributes Robert Salesses, who is currently performing the tasks of the Defense Minister. The “Washington Post” had previously reported that Hegseth had instructed the ministry to present cuts of eight percent of the defense budget in each of the next five years.
The newspaper refers to a memo by Minister Hegseth. The cuts should therefore be worked out by February 24th. According to the report, military missions on the southern border of the United States, rocket defense or the modernization of nuclear weapons should be except for the austerity measures. In the explanation, which was now spread by the Pentagon after the publication of the media report, there is not talk of savings, but of shifting.
The defense budget adopted by the congress for this year is around $ 895 billion – of which around 850 billion falls under the sovereignty of the pentagon. Trump had recently said that Tech billionaire Elon Musk should also look for a waste of money in the Ministry of Defense.
Musk: bureaucracy opposes the president
Trump massively drives the conversion of the state apparatus. He entrusted Musk with the lowering of government spending and created the committee Doge (“Department of Government Efficiency”) – with unclear powers. Musk defended his approach and compared the criticism of his radical austerity measures and terminations with a “daily proctological examination”.
“There is a huge German bureaucracy that relentlessly opposes the president and the cabinet,” said Musk. Trump also commented about government officials and spoke of fraud with a view to her work. At the same time, Musk said: “If the will of the President is not implemented – and the president represents the will of the people – this means that the will of the people is not implemented, and that means that we do not live in a democracy, but in one Bureaucracy.”
This statement is greatly simplified and, for example, ignores the separation of powers. In addition, the US President does not only represent the will of the people. The Congress, unlike the President, also represents the will of the citizens directly by the people.
Trump assured that Musk would last for Doge in the event of a conflict of interest. The Republican left open exactly how this should look and who should ensure this. The tech billionaire benefits from various government orders – for example for its space company SpaceX.
