{"id":46830,"date":"2018-12-02T00:46:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T00:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/02\/defense-experts-still-puzzled-by-trumps-700-billion-military-budget-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:36:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:36:01","slug":"defense-experts-still-puzzled-by-trumps-700-billion-military-budget-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/12\/02\/defense-experts-still-puzzled-by-trumps-700-billion-military-budget-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Trump really going to cut the defense budget?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=e5b8b3cc-3002-4a41-a793-445682bc32bb\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-e5b8b3cc-3002-4a41-a793-445682bc32bb.jpg\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Defense Secretary Jim Mattis explains his thoughts on the defense budget as the White House is looking to cut money from the FY2020 defense budget.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SIMI VALLEY, Calif. \u2014 For military planners, the biggest question heading into 2019 is whether the president\u2019s proposed<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/reagan-defense-forum\/2018\/12\/01\/mattis-cutting-defense-will-not-help-deficit\/\" target=\"_blank\"> $700 billion defense budget plan<\/a> is a negotiating ploy or a sincere target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense experts at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/12\/01\/survey-finds-strong-support-for-military-members-less-support-for-military-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reagan National Defense Forum<\/a> on Saturday said they aren\u2019t sure which is more worrisome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBecause this came so late in the planning process, all the personnel costs are cooked,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2017\/08\/14\/bob-work-joins-board-of-raytheon\/\" target=_blank>Robert Work<\/a>, who served as deputy secretary of defense under both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. \u201cAll the operations and maintenance money is set. So you have to go into modernization to find the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven if we go with (the higher predictions), this becomes a real cut \u2026 We still wouldn\u2019t be able to afford the 355-ship Navy or a larger Army.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/reagan-defense-forum\/2018\/12\/01\/top-gop-appropriator-signals-willingness-to-cut-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_18079592800266.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Top GOP appropriator signals willingness to cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Comments from Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, could be a signal for how badly the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Congress have soured in the last year.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the last month, Pentagon planners have been scrambling to rework their fiscal 2020 budget proposals in the wake of Trump\u2019s surprise announcement that he would require all federal agencies to trim 5 percent off their spending for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The president said the Defense Department would be excluded from that requirement, but would eye a military appropriations target of $700 billion \u2014 far below the anticipated $733 billion level of military planners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent weeks, lawmakers have begun lobbying administration officials to raise their military spending plan. Earlier in the day at the Reagan event, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quoted from an op-ed by Republican congressional leaders advocating for the $733 billion mark, and added that stable and adequate funding is critical for the continued recapitalization of the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work said that push will continue for months to come, but he remains unconvinced the president is really focused on the $700 billion number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Jack Keane, former Army vice chief of staff and a current defense analyst with ties to the Trump administration, said he sees the figure as far more disconcerting than just a negotiating ploy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m concerned that the director of OMB (Mick Mulvaney) is blowing in (Trump\u2019s) ear that the deficit is mounting and defense has to take its share of the cuts,\u201d Keane said. \u201cAnd if we come in at $700 billion, there\u2019s no growth in Army brigades, the Air Force goes backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He called the president\u2019s $700 billion target a serious risk, especially considering the president\u2019s \u201ctendency to think once he has made a decision, that it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/it-networks\/2018\/12\/01\/when-totalitarian-regimes-play-by-different-rules-in-tech-how-the-us-military-can-compete\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18318509568420.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">When totalitarian regimes play by different rules in tech, here\u2019s how the US military can compete<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Even as the Pentagon speaks about the importance of strategic cooperation with China, differing approaches to technology development could leave the U.S. struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work said the bigger worry is that the early spending figure fight is distracting from more critical debates, like whether House Democrats will go along with anything close to either figure and whether the two parties can come together quick enough to avoid triggering automatic spending caps still mandated under law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe conditions we saw in 2012 have been duplicated today,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have divided government. Deficit concerns are rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEveryone says sequestration will never happen again. I was told by everyone back then that sequestration would never happen. And it did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new session of Congress begins in January. The president\u2019s formal budget request for the Defense Department is expected in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/reagan-defense-forum\/\" target=_blank><b>Visit Defense News&#8217; Reagan National Defense Forum site for full coverage of the event. <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is it a negotiating ploy or a sincere message from the president that defense has to preparing for slimmer spending?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":99494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,29,162,36,19,95],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3424],"class_list":["post-46830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-digital-show-daily","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-reagan-defense-forum"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"7CIRU2PU5VHXLJUTDAEUM5UKNU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/12\/02\/defense-experts-still-puzzled-by-trumps-700-billion-military-budget-plan\/","remove_feature_photo":true,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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