Story thread · 3 reports / 3 sources

GOP Ghosts Pete Hegseth’s $1.5T Crown-Jewel Budget

crooksandliars.com · 22hShare

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has spent a year and a half getting away with plenty—controversial Iran operations, Signal chats that risked troops, mass firings, National Guard deployments to blue cities, and even renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. Republicans mostly covered for him. Now he wants the real prize: a jaw-dropping, record-breaking $1.5 trillion defense budget packed with Trump-branded goodies like nuclear-capable battleships and a “Golden Dome” missile shield. He’s been trekking to the Hill, warning senators that anything less is basically national suicide. The result? Senators packed up for summer recess no closer to producing it. An increasingly vocal group of Republicans is asking the awkward questions: Why burn precious pre-midterm political capital on this? What’s Plan B if the third (or fourth) reconciliation bill doesn’t materialize? And why hand the White House even more blank-check power? Even defense hawks who normally salivate over bigger

First report: Politico: GOP Bucks Hegseth’s $1.5T Budget Demand — joemygod.com, 1d