Democrats reject decades of policy as they fight against Hegseth’s Pentagon cuts

Amid the war on terror and the many military conflicts of the past two decades, Democrats were often critics of foreign adventurism and military spending, pointing to the bloated Pentagon budget as an obvious target for cuts to balance the budget. 

Now that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a sweeping budget review and the implementation of those cuts, Democrats -- determined to obstruct the Trump agenda -- are suddenly livid and sound like Bush-era Republicans warning of national security failures should the Defense Department lose funding.

The fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act approved $883.7 billion in funding for discretionary defense purposes. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, however, has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to plan for an 8% budget cut every year for five years, according to The Washington Post, which cited an internal memo and “officials familiar with the matter.”

“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,” acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said Wednesday.

Hegseth: “It’s not a cut, it’s refocusing and reinvesting”

Attempting to combat media narratives, Hegseth has insisted that he is merely moving money in the Pentagon’s budget to other internal priorities and that such a move did not constitute a cut at all. As the Pentagon plans to allocate funding to other projects, it is unlikely that the shifts would directly impact the national budget. In a public video statement, Hegseth on Thursday urged the public to take media stories with a “grain of salt,” insisting that the media has a “different agenda.” 

Hegseth has sought to free up funds in the budget this year to instead invest in Trump-favored projects like an American Iron Dome. That money comes from the already-approved FY2026 budget and totals around $50 billion, roughly 8% of that budget. He did not directly address the reports of an 8% cut each year for five years, but merely the reallocation of the $50 billion within the existing budget.

Hegseth confirmed that the Department of Government Efficiency was working with the Pentagon and that he had afforded their staff “broad access” to review the department, with a focus on “headquarters, and fat, and redundancies, and topline stuff.”

“The media wants to call these exclusive cuts, but it’s completely the opposite,” he said. “It’s not a cut, it’s refocusing and reinvesting” existing funds toward Trump’s priorities and away from Biden-era social programs. Prior to the announcement, Hegseth highlighted the Pentagon’s inability to pass an audit and its history of financial vagueness.

“The fact that I have to commit to an audit being done in four years is bad enough. The Pentagon should be able to pass a budget right now,” he told Fox News earlier this month. “When we spend dollars, we need to know where they’re going and why. That’s simple accounting.”

Democrats livid

Mainline Democrats did an about face from their decades long opposition to military spending, and were quick to criticize the prospect of a reduced defense budget and now warn of national security failures as they wage war against DOGE and its sweeping cuts to the federal headcount.

“These types of hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts would betray our military forces and their families and make America less safe. I’m all for cutting programs that don’t work, but this proposal is deeply misguided. Secretary Hegseth’s rushed, arbitrary strategy would have negative impacts on our security, economy, and industrial base,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

The cuts “will have a dramatic, deleterious & damaging effect on our readiness & preparedness for the threats that are only increasing around the world,” Sen. Dick Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on CNN. Blumenthal is notorious for having been accused of "stolen valor": repeatedly claiming to have served in Vietnam. That story fell apart and in 2010 Blumenthal apologized for "misspeaking."

Retired Lt. Gen. and CNN analyst Mark Hertling fumed over the plans, calling them “exponentially worse than sequestration that crippled the military in 2011.”

That was then, this is now.

Social media erupted with comments on the irony of Democrats spending years advocating for defense cuts, only to balk when a Republican actually attempted to implement them. Some Democrats did attempt to force a 10% defense cut in 2020, with 93 of them backing the measure, but it did not succeed.

“A republican president moves to cut defense spending and democrats howl. Amazing,” tweeted the Bluesky Libs account. The about-face is particularly noteworthy in light of Democrats suggesting that DOGE look at the Pentagon instead of cutting other public programs, just weeks previously.

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which disburses funds to PBS and NPR stations, gets $535 million a year in federal funding,” posted CNN’s Brian Stelter in early February. “So any official who seriously wanted to achieve billions in cost savings would start elsewhere – like the $874 billion spent on national defense.”

Sanders: “Every once in awhile, I do agree with Trump" 

Despite the Democratic about-face, some die-hard progressives are on board with the plan to reduce the Pentagon’s budget.

“Every once in awhile, I DO agree with Trump. He's right: when the Pentagon cannot complete an independent audit, we should cut military spending by 8% a year over the next 5 years. These savings should go to increasing Social Security benefits & strengthening VA health care,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said.

Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, a stalwart progressive, also lent his limited support to the idea of Pentagon cuts and opined that Democrats would be unwise to oppose the move. “Hegseth says Pentagon needs to cut 8% per year for next five years. Great,” he posted. 

“Then he says we're going to redirect the savings to another Pentagon program. Not great. Redirect it to the taxpayers. Also, looks like Democrats might be stupid enough to fight AGAINST Pentagon cuts,” Uygur continued.

The Pentagon directed Just the News to the statement from Salesses and declined to provide comment on the reported 8% annual cuts.