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THIS WILL BE REMEMBERED AS THE WEEK when U.S. defense policy was radically altered. Domestic spending cuts and layoffs were expected, but on Capitol Hill yesterday there was dismay over huge proposed defense cuts — combined with an apparent rejection of U.S. allies like Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
PRESS REPORTS IN THE WASHINGTON POST and elsewhere were stunning: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been instructed to cut 8 percent from the defense budget in each of the next five years.
THIS PRODUCED A FIRESTORM IN CONGRESS, which will attempt to reduce the cuts, but the best case scenario for the defense industry will be relatively flat spending for the next few years, after decades of huge annual spending hikes.
IN ADDITION TO PUTTING PRESSURE on many defense firms, this will infuriate members of Congress, who know that jobs in their home districts will be jeopardized. The prospect of deep spending cuts has been supported by members of Congress — as long as the cuts don’t eliminate jobs in their home districts.
SOME PROGRAMS WILL WIN EXEMPTIONS, especially funding for border security and money for the “Iron Dome” missile defense system. And there won’t be deep cuts for modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, and acquisition of submarines, one-way attack drones and other munitions.
AS WE WROTE YESTERDAY, this is an unprecedented reversal of U.S. defense policy, especially the Trump Administration’s barrage against Zelenskyy.
THE WINNER, QUITE CLEARLY, is Vladimir Putin, who has won enormous concessions from the U.S. even before serious negotiations begin. Will this radical change win congressional enactment? All eyes are on the polls, which show support slipping for both Trump and Elon Musk.
Related: The Consequences of Trump's Recent Miscalculations
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