Hegseth Presses for $1.5 Trillion Pentagon Budget as Base Is Renamed for Lindsey Graham
Updated
Updated · CNN · Aug 10
Hegseth Presses for $1.5 Trillion Pentagon Budget as Base Is Renamed for Lindsey Graham
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 10
Summary
$1.5 trillion was the Pentagon request Pete Hegseth highlighted at Monday's ceremony renaming Joint Base Charleston as Joint Base Lindsey Graham, calling it the strongest tribute Congress could pay the late senator.
Hegseth tied the push to Graham's long advocacy for military expansion, quoting him as saying it was the best military budget he had seen in Congress.
The request would far exceed last year's roughly $800 billion Pentagon budget and comes on top of $150 billion in separate defense funding passed in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill.
Republican support remains shaky despite Hegseth's lobbying on Capitol Hill, with skepticism fueled by the war with Iran and concerns over using reconciliation for part of the plan.
Graham, a Trump ally and Air Force Reserve colonel who died last month after an aortic dissection, is now the namesake of a South Carolina base that supports more than 90,000 personnel and retirees.