Elon Musk Stands to Get Even Richer as Trump Backs $1 Trillion Budget for Pentagon

As federal agencies face crippling cuts and are forced to cut essential services, President Trump has announced he will seek a $1 trillion budget for the Pentagon, a record-setting number that would mark the highest level of U.S. defense spending since World War II. William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, blasts the promised budget as “completely unnecessary” and says that “almost the only beneficiaries are going to be the weapons manufacturers.” Hartung also discusses the growing political influence of Silicon Valley defense technology startups, including Alex Karp’s Palantir and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Atomic Terrain | A Bombshelltoe Project

Another year, another delusional Pentagon budget request

DOD is asking Congress to authorize nearly $900 billion to fund a military strategy that will only make the world less secure

Start of a New Cold War? U.S. Hawks “Want to Jack up the Military Budget and Use Ukraine as an Excuse”

With NATO countries recommitting themselves to the alliance and passing sweeping sanctions against Russia as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is this the dawn of a new Cold War? We speak with foreign policy expert William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, who warns that hawks in Washington are pushing for a massive increase in the U.S. military budget, which is already a record-high $800 billion a year. “There’s a danger that not only will this be a war in Ukraine, but the U.S. will use it as an excuse for a more aggressive policy around the world, arguing that it’s to counter Russia or China or Iran, or whoever the enemy of the moment is.” Hartung also speaks about the Saudi-led war in Yemen, where U.S. support has allowed the conflict to rage for years, killing about 400,000 people. Unlike in Ukraine, where the U.S. has more limited leverage, the Biden administration could “end that killing tomorrow,” Hartung says.