Welcome to Trump Budget Management : A Week After Decrying a $716 Billion Defense Budget, Trump Agrees to $750 Billion Defense Budget

The Commander-in-Chief

President Donald Trump has agreed to a request from Defense Secretary James Mattis to propose a defense budget of $750 billion for the coming year, reports CNN.

Last week, Trump appeared to call the Defense Department budget of $716 billion "crazy" in a tweet.
I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

Note well that Trump's tweet suggests the high military budget is the result of a "major and uncontrollable Arms Race" but does not mention that the Empire has outposts throughout the world with many active military operations in regions that are none of our business.

The agreement on the $750 billion budget came out of the meeting last Tuesday, which was attended by Trump, Mattis and the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, according to CNN.

"The President fully supports the National Defense Strategy and continuing to rebuild the military," an administration source told CNN.. "With the help of Sen. Inhofe and Chairman Thornberry, President Trump agreed to $750 billion topline."

Notes CNN, the meeting last week came as the Trump administration floated a 5% cut to the Defense Department, reducing the defense budget from $716 billion allocated in 2019 to $700 billion in 2020 as part of a federal government-wide effort to reduce the deficit.

-RW