President Trump said on Friday that he has instructed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk to focus on the Pentagon, which accounts for the largest portion of the discretionary Federal budget.
While he expects the DOGE examination to yield some cuts at the Defense Department (DoD), President Trump voiced doubt that the cuts would end up being large.
In a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, President Trump predicted that DOGE will likely produce nearly $1 trillion in Federal spending reductions overall. Trump established DOGE on his first day back in office, placing it within the executive branch rather than creating it as an outside advisory committee.
DOGE first set its sights on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), moving to dismantle the agency by taking its website and social media accounts offline, terminating staff, and halting overseas operations. Concurrently, DOGE attempted to access the Treasury Department’s payment systems to “identify and eliminate inefficiencies,” prompting pushback and several lawsuits.
“We’re going to be doing more and more … we’re going to be looking at the Department of Education, looking at even our military. Looking at tremendous amounts of money being spent on things … that have no value,” President Trump said.
The DoD budget for fiscal year (FY) 2024 was set at approximately $825 billion, allocating large portions of the funds to new weapons systems and technology advancements. For FY 2025, the DoD is requesting a budget of around $852.2 billion to allocate investments in cybersecurity, space operations, and giving servicemembers a pay bump.
However, there is a caveat to the DoD’s upcoming DOGE review. President Trump believes that while DOGE will find areas to trim, the effort it wouldn’t “proportionally” be anything like the gutting of USAID.
