Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed Pentagon officials to find about $50 billion in the Biden administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal that can be redirected to new priorities, according to a late-Wednesday statement by his acting deputy.
Funds should be moved from “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs” and “excessive bureaucracy” to Trump-administration priorities, such as securing the border, building an “Iron Dome” for the United States, and ending DEI programs, acting deputy defense secretary Robert Salesses said in the statement..
“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 8% of the Biden Administration’s FY-26 budget, totaling around $50 billion, which will then be spent on programs aligned with President Trump’s priorities,” Salesses said in the statement.
The fiscal 2025 Defense Authorization Act, passed in December, adhered to the Biden administration’s topline request of $849.9 billion for the Pentagon. Negotiations on the appropriations bill are still ongoing, more than five months into the fiscal year. In November, the administration’s fiscal 2026 proposal was expected to be around $876.8 billion, although then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended boosting it to $926.5 billion.
Salesses’ statement follows recent reporting by the Washington Post that Hegseth ordered Pentagon leaders to cut 8 percent from the defense budget in each of the next five years. However, the new statement seems to paint a different picture, clarifying that they will merely move money around, rather than cut the funding completely, and does not confirm the Post’s reporting regarding the five-year timeline.
While it’s common for new administrations to adjust the budget proposals of their predecessors, an 8-percent shift is more than usual.
No date has yet been announced for sending the revamped budget proposal to Congress, which usually occurs in February except in the first year of a new administration, when it often arrives a month or more later.
Bloomberg first reported the shift in funding.
