‘Non-essential’: Pentagon sets out US$5.1 billion in cuts, including climate
The US Department of Defence (DOD) will cut US$5.1 billion in “wasteful” spending, including on climate and diversity initiatives, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump has vowed to slash government spending, tasking Elon Musk – the world’s richest man – with leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Hegseth has said Doge would have “broad access” to root out programmes from the previous administration.
Last month, he ordered the termination of US$580 million in spending, which included grants related to climate change and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) areas, among others.
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In a video published on Thursday, Hegseth said the DOD was ending “eleven contracts for DEI, climate, Covid-19 response, and related non-essential activities”.
“We’re signing a memo right now directing the termination of US$5.1 billion in DOD contracts,” he said.
The cuts also include contracts for consulting services from private firms for the Defence Health Agency, as well as a cloud IT services contract.
The DOD is also pausing over US$500 million in funding to Northwestern University and Cornell University, which Hegseth described as “academic institutions that tolerate antisemitism and support divisive DEI programmes”.
The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some US$850 billion.
In February, a memo from Hegseth ordered the development of plans for eight per cent to be cut from the budget in each of the next year, according to The Washington Post.
If implemented in full, the cuts would reduce the budget by tens of billions each year to some US$560 billion by the end of the five years.
“We will move away from woke, Biden-era, non-lethal programmes, and instead spend that money on President Trump’s America First, peace through strength, priorities,” Hegseth said earlier this year.