this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2026
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Pentagon officials are reportedly struggling to devise a plan to spend the extra $500 billion that Donald Trump wants to give the bloated, fraud-ridden agency in the next fiscal year, vindicating criticism of the funding proposal as immensely wasteful.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that “White House aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges surrounding where to put the money, because the amount is so large.”

The extra $500 billion, endorsed by the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, would push annual US military spending to a staggering $1.5 trillion after the Trump administration and congressional Republicans enacted unprecedented cuts to federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid last summer.

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[–] Gork@sopuli.xyz 93 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Hmm let's give an extra $500 billion to an agency that has failed all of its financial audits...

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 24 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Which, some how the Dodge waste fraud and abuse team, never seemed to get around to investigating... They claimed they would, but I guess were too busy gutting everything that was investigating musks companies before getting bored with it.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 days ago

Don’t forget the canceling of any services that weren’t exclusively for white men.

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[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 59 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Give all of it to the army corps of engineers and build public transportation networks.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 18 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Someone should let them know that when it actually comes to war, railroads can be used to efficiently transport weaponry and vehicles

And the same railroads could be used for civilian transit when there's no war

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Rails can do that, yes. The thing is, the military is supposed to be used outside the US. Internal military rail networks only really good for putting down internal dissent and attacking neighbors.

No, it's better to give the money to an agency focused on designing a rail network from an economic and transportation basis.

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[–] starchylemming@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

what the fuck? a good idea??? get out

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Rapid urban troop movers. Must be grade separated.

[–] littlewonder@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Goddamn it, we've just invented trains again.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

No, trains are stupid. We need cars. Well, we need trucks. And we could get a lot more efficiency if we added more trailers to the trucks and made them bigger so we'd need fewer drivers;. And dedicated lanes for the trucks! And since we're giving them their own lane, we could optimize it by changing the material on the wheels and the road to resist rolling friction, maybe steel on steel? And since truckers tend to doze off, we could make grooves in the road so they stay on course...

Goddamn it!

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 51 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This has been going on for decades.

Reagan wanted a 'six hundred ship' Navy. The actual Navy had no idea what he was talking about.

Poseidon won’t even know what hit him!

[–] bufalo1973@piefed.social 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

But there's no money for public health, public education or anything that helps people.

[–] kofe@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Of course silly, otherwise that would mean money spent on undesirables

[–] WagnasT@piefed.world 31 points 4 days ago (2 children)

remember when they had to keep increasing the budget to sustain 2 war zones for decades and then when they pulled out of both Iraq and afganistan they...kept increasing the budget???? Where the fuck is the money going?

[–] karashta@piefed.social 10 points 4 days ago

Into creating things that destroy rather than things that are good and last, because destruction lines the pockets of capitalists better.

[–] frisbird@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

Failed wunderwaffe projects and grift, but I repeat myself

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

I’m sure they’ll give it to Israel somehow

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 24 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've got an idea. Use it to buy weapons for Ukraine.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If returned to tax payers, this would mean a $3,030 payment for every single one of us.

That'd at least pay the rent one month in Trump's economy.

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago

Maybe a carton of eggs, even?

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

Here's an idea, give it back

[–] MrEff@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The really crazy part is when you look at it as a percentage of the budget and compare it to pre war levels. It isn't what you think. In 2000 the budget was $304 billion, a total of 16.7% of the federal budget. Then 2 wars later of ballooning costs and it grew all the way up to $962 billion (the 2025 approved budget. Not counting the random $500 billion he is trying to add in). But this is now only 13.7% of thr total budget. Somehow the percentage has gone down.

Now, if you know numbers you should know that percentages get messy and are misleading to look at. The real question is what the fuck is going on with the giant ballooning budget that has gotten spending so out of control that this monstrous defense spending is now somehow a lower percentage than pre-war spending??? And the real kicker is that we are ballooning on spending, but none of it is going to actually helping the people paying the taxes! None of it is helping built up infrastructure, invest in education, build communities -nothing that helps build this country.

Trump is blowing through money and we doing even get anything out of it.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 8 points 4 days ago

I just read that at the current rate of spending, by the end of Trump's administration in 2028, Trump will be responsible for 55% of the national debt.

Remember that the next time some MAGA claims it's time to reign in spending...during a Democratic administration.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 days ago

He's paying himself, his family, his cronies, his handlers, his gestapo, and his billionaire donors.

All with taxpayer money that mostly comes from the working class, who are getting screwed over.

[–] crusa187@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They should spend it all on passing a financial audit, for once.

[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago

Accountability on their own activities? Good luck with that. They want surveillance on everyone else but would rather stay in the shadows themselves.

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 9 points 4 days ago

Give it to the poor, build housing and use soldiers for the labour under a contractor? Anything besides blow people up and fraud please.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 7 points 4 days ago

Then give it the fuck back!

[–] manxu@piefed.social 12 points 4 days ago

That is America's biggest problem right now. Forget affordability, forget inflation. It's the sartorial problem to beat all problems: the pockets of American politicians are not deep and strong enough for all the money they have to line them with. Just think of all the poor sweatshops in Vietnam that have to re-cut, re-fit, and re-sew all the pockets.

[–] 3jane@piefed.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Trump wants to buy the Army's loyalty.

You can't have a coup without the army. He's replaced the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with bootlickers probably.

[–] chalupapocalypse@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

How much does a Battlestar Galactica cost, we're gonna need one

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's one Battlestar Galactica, Michael. What could it cost?

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[–] DandomRude@piefed.social 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think the problem these people face is more about how to implement the directive to funnel most of this absurd supplementary budget directly into the pockets of a few, preferably conservative, cronies of this criminal regime...

[–] LordMayor@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago

Yeah, I’m sure if friends and family will spin up some new consulting companies, suppliers and middle men to soak up the excess.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Shit, I thought the US military budget was at $960 billion, not $1.5 trillion.

How about universal healthcare and a high speed rail network?

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Give to Ukraine?

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Just give it to Lockheed and Raytheon as a tip

[–] GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

...And yet no one in power right now will push back against it because they don't want to be seen as "weak on defense"

[–] ClownStatue@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

Is there an index fund of just defense contractors?

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago
  1. Add lobster as topping choice for daily departmental pizza parties.
[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I can think of a few military contractors that would live a cool 500b

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