Hegseth directs Pentagon to find $50 billion in cuts this year to fund Trump military priorities

Hegseth has committed to redirecting Pentagon spending to more directly support war fighters.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the military services to identify USD 50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings toward funding President Donald Trump’s priorities.

Hegseth has committed to reallocating Pentagon spending to more directly support warfighters. In a statement late on Wednesday, Robert Salesses, who is performing the duties of deputy secretary of defense, said, “The time for preparation is over,” and added that “excessive bureaucracy” and programs targeting climate change or “other woke programs,” such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, would be targeted.

“To achieve our mandate from President Trump, we are guided by his priorities, including securing our borders, building the Iron Dome for America, and ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” Salesses said.

The Iron Dome is envisioned as an extensive, multilayered air defense system for the US that Trump has said should include the ability to shoot down incoming missiles from space.

The roughly USD 50 billion in cuts would represent about 8 percent of the military’s budget. It was not immediately clear which parts of the Pentagon’s spending on diversity and equity programs or its spending to address climate change—such as buying alternate fuels for aircraft or making bases more resistant to extreme weather—would be targeted or could add up to USD 50 billion in savings. For instance, in 2018, a hurricane caused significant damage to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, highlighting the military’s need for climate resilience.

The spending cuts mandate comes as the military is quickly trying to build its fiscal year 2026 request, a congressional process that often starts late during transitions between presidential administrations. Hegseth has asked the Pentagon to find offsets—programs that can be cut to achieve spending elsewhere—for fiscal year 2026, which starts on October 1.

The cuts would be as drastic as the single-year ordered savings across the military in the 2013 sequestration, a law passed by Congress intended to force the legislative branch to reach an agreement on budget deficit reductions. Instead, it forced the services to cut USD 56 billion in a matter of months.

Due to the structure of the military budget, long-term, high-dollar procurement programs at the time were protected, as were most entitlements such as military retirement and health care. At the time, the easiest accounts to cut were operations, maintenance, and personnel. The services lost non-commissioned officers—highly trained mid-level enlisted personnel—and reduced training, including flight hours. Military training accidents quickly increased as a result.

Since the sequester, Congress and the military services have directed additional protections toward operations and maintenance spending.