Hegseth Directs Pentagon Leaders to Prepare for Deep Budget Cuts

The Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered senior military officials to cut 8% of the budget of the Department for each year over the next five years.

Hegseth, according to a memo that was obtained by the outlet ordered the identification of the proposed cuts by February 24. The memo includes a list that lists 17 areas the Trump administration would like to be exempted. These include southern border operations, missile defense, and nuclear weapons modernization, as well as the acquisition of one-way assault drones.

The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is estimated at $850 billion. According to reports, Capitol Hill believes that massive spending will be needed to protect against Chinese and Russian threats. The Post reported that, if budget cuts were adopted in their entirety, each of the five-year spending plans would see tens of billions of dollars cut.

Hegseth stated in a memo dated Tuesday that “President Trump has given clear instructions to DoD: achieve Peace through strength. The time for planning is over. We must act immediately to rebuild our military and restore deterrence. Our budget will provide the resources we need to build the fighting force, stop unnecessary defense spending, eliminate excessive bureaucracy, and implement reforms, including the audit.”

The memo outlines the continued funding of “support agencies” for the Indo-Pacific Command (IPAC), Northern Command (Northern Command) and Space Command. However, European Command is conspicuously missing from the list. European Command played a key role in implementing U.S. policy during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. According to the Post’s report, Central Command, the command that oversees Middle Eastern operations, and Africa Command which manages thousands of troops on the continent, are also missing from the list.

John Ullyot said Hegseth’s spokesman was putting together an official Pentagon statement to answer questions regarding the Secretary’s memo. It will be released soon.

The proposed cuts, if implemented, would be the largest effort to reduce Pentagon spending since 2013 when Congress authorized sequestration or budget cuts across the board. Those cuts, which were deemed a crisis by the Pentagon at the time and became unpopular with both Republicans and Democrats because of their impact on military conflict readiness, were viewed as a major effort to reduce Pentagon spending.