DOGE joins budget battle on side of Defense Department

Defense Secretary Hegseth allied with DOGE to fix the military budget and get it back to warfighting. Spending was reallocated and Congress could target Pentagon for $150 billion more.

Roger Zakheim is director of the Ronald Reagan Institute and a former general counsel on the House Armed Services Committee. He is a commissioner on the National Defense Strategy Commission. 

Hegseth is shrewdly attempting to leverage the power of DOGE and implement a much-needed comprehensive reform of the Pentagon budget. His reallocation plan assumes that savings from wasteful and unnecessary programs should be large enough to fend off pressure for more harmful cuts, potentially in areas essential for warfighting. His success will hinge on whether DOGE will embrace Hegseth’s 8% budget reallocation plan or if it demands blanket cuts on the Pentagon. President Trump, who has indicated he will allow his cabinet secretaries to take the first crack at cuts instead of DOGE, will be the pivotal player in Hegseth’s gambit.