Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is challenging President Trump to follow up his executive order to rename the Defense Department the “War Department” with a bigger increase in the Pentagon’s budget to deter threats from China, Russia and other adversaries.
“If we call it the Department of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars. Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than [former Presidents] Carter or Biden,” McConnell said in a post on social platform X.
“‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding,” McConnell said.
McConnell expressed his disappointment with Trump’s defense budget request in May, warning at the time the proposal from the White House would extend the Biden administration’s “material neglect” of defense spending needs.
“The Trump administration missed a tremendous opportunity to answer their predecessor’s chronic underinvestment in the U.S. military with robust, full-year funding for [fiscal 2025]. Now, it appears the Trump Administration’s FY26 defense budget request will double down on the Biden administration’s material neglect for the glaring national security threat challenges about which they speak with great alarm,” he said in a statement earlier this year.
The White House budget office said its proposal would increase defense spending by 13 percent to $1.01 trillion in fiscal 2026, but GOP critics on Capitol Hill said it reached that target by pulling $119 billion from the extra defense money included in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Republican defense hawks argue the annual defense budget shouldn’t rely on funding included in the OBBBA, which they said should supplement a robust annual defense appropriations.
NBC News reported on Thursday that the Pentagon is considering leasing parts of the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton in Southern California to help fund Trump’s Gold Dome missile defense project.
The base covers more than 125,000 acres.
