The Pentagon’s Biden-era climate initiatives may soon be on the chopping block as President Donald Trump moves to cut wasteful military spending while ramping up the overall defense budget.
“There is waste, redundancies, and headcounts at headquarters that need to be addressed. There’s just no doubt,” Trump’s newly confirmed defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, told Axios on Tuesday, pointing to climate-related spending that the Biden administration classified as a national security priority.
The Defense Department is in the business of “deterring and winning wars,” not “solving the global thermostat,” Hegseth said. He added that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, will begin reviewing the Pentagon’s spending “very soon.”
The move is part of Trump’s broader effort to rein in government waste, with the Pentagon as a primary target. Trump, who wants to increase defense spending, believes that Musk’s team can salvage “billions of dollars” from former president Joe Biden’s climate initiatives and redirect the funds toward military readiness, according to Axios.
The Pentagon’s budget—more than $890 billion—accounts for around half of all federal discretionary spending in the latest fiscal year. The Defense Department, however, has failed its annual audit for seven consecutive years, most recently in December, Axios reported.
“Let’s check the military,” Trump said on Sunday. “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse, and the people elected me on that.”
