The Hegseth budget: defense secretary’s $1.5tn ask reveals military-industrial chaos

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to cut its budget by eight percent annually over five years beginning in February 2025, targeting roughly three hundred forty million dollars in savings. The announcement briefly rattled defense stocks, including Palantir, but the initiative vanished from public view. The Guardian frames the episode as emblematic of deeper dysfunction in military budget-planning and decision-making.

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