A new McAleese & Associates report says President Donald Trump appears to have expressed support to a defense budget request of $733B to $750B for fiscal year 2020 following his meeting with lawmakers and other government officials.
Trump met with Defense Secretary James Mattis; National Security Adviser John Bolton; Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.); and HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas); on Dec. 4 at the White House to discuss the defense budget, according to the report.
“The day before yesterday, I spent over two-hours with the president, with the vice president, with John Bolton…about making [defense] a priority…to compete with our peer-competitors,†Inhofe said.
Inhofe mentioned some of his priorities for his panel at the National Defense University, Jim McAleese, founder and principal at McAleese & Associates, wrote in the report.
Those priorities include the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act before FY 2020 kicks off; combat readiness; and power projection modernization across the areas of cyber, electronic warfare, missile defense, space and long-range fires.
Other priorities that Inhofe cited include the 355-ship fleet; nuclear triad recapitalization; artificial intelligence and hypersonics; accelerated procurement process; and the $733B budget of the departments of Defense and Energy for FY 2020 to prevent “strategic insolvency.â€
