About this episode
Timothy Snyder discusses Trump's military budget proposal as a political maneuver to secure loyalty from military personnel.
In this video, I say the obvious about Trump’s proposal to increase the military budget by nearly 50%: it’s a bribe to officers and soldiers so that they will side with him when he tries to overthrow the Constitution and stay in power indefinitely. This is where all the evidence points. If there is any consensus about Trump, it is that he is “transactional.” There is zero evidence that he has a notion of US interests. There is abundant evidence that he understands politics as a matter of people being paid off. And that is the framework in which to understand his proposed military budget. He is paying people off. No other explanation fits the data. Increasing the military budget from about a trillion dollars to about 1.5 trillion dollars makes no fiscal sense. We can’t pay for it without destroying basic government functions and soaking the American taxpayer. It makes no military sense . It is based upon no doctrinal innovation or review of technology. The “Trump-class” battleships it proposes are archaic, nonsensical, and more than a little embarrassing. The budget proposal makes no managerial sense. The Pentagon has never passed an audit, and Pete Hegseth has proven himself…
People in this episode
Host: Timothy Snyder
Topics covered
- military budget
- politics
- Trump
- government functions
- democracy
Keywords
- Trump
- military budget
- Pentagon
- politics
- democracy
- government functions
- Pete Hegseth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pentagon
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