During remarks to the nation’s governors, President Donald Trump promised substantial increases in military and national security spending while simultaneously bemoaning trillions of dollars in military spending in the Middle East, which he said had gotten the United States “less than nowhere.”
Trump described his upcoming budget proposal as “a public safety and national security budget” Monday morning. He claimed it would include a “historic increase” in defense spending and said that funding for domestic law enforcement would be “substantially increased.”
Still, in comments that were surprisingly blunt, Trump denounced the United States’ 21st century militarism in the Middle East and said he would not fight wars that “we don’t fight to win.”
“We don’t fight to win. We don’t fight to win. So we either have to win or don’t fight it at all,” he said. “But where we are, 17 years, almost 17 years of fighting in the Middle East, we’re up – I saw a chart the other day as of about a month ago, $6 trillion we’ve spent in the Middle East, $6 trillion. And I want to tell you that’s just unacceptable.”
In September of last year, Professor Neta C. Crawford of Boston University estimated the costs of U.S. wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and homeland security costs, at $4.79 trillion and counting. A 2013 Harvard working paper, also flagged by Politifact, presented a higher estimate.
“And we’re nowhere,” Trump continued. “Actually if you think about it, we’re less than nowhere. The Middle East is far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago, there’s not even a contest. So we’ve spent $6 trillion. We have a hornet’s nest. It’s a mess like you’ve never seen before. We’re nowhere, so we’re going to straighten it out.”
Trump emphasized cutting back in certain areas of the budget – myriad federal agencies and social programs, according to early reports – in order to expand spending on defense and domestic security.
“We’re going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people, who can do so much more with the money we spend,” he said. “With the $20 trillion in debt – can you imagine that? – the government must learn to tighten its belt, something families all across the country have had to learn to do unfortunately.”
He added: “My budget increases spending, and the increase in all spending for federal law enforcement also, and activities having to do with law enforcement will be substantially increased and we will fight violent crime.”
And, singling out crime in Chicago, Trump predicted: “Once we give the local police, the local law enforcement the right to go in and fight it and we back them monetarily and also otherwise, we’re going to win that one.”
