Trump does not have veteran's best interest at heart

Re(Our Troops Deserve Better Than Moldy Barracks by Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick)

As Trump increased the defense budget to one billion dollars with more bills on the way, his plan for a large budget is coming to materialization. Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, both a former adviser and deputy chief to Pete Hegseth, see this as a step in the right direction. But they most importantly seek this money to go toward the living space of soldiers. With wars years out, finding reliable, and stable housing and living has been hard, especially with the housing budget on slow decline for the past decade, so it must be prioritized. However, Caldwell and Selnick wrongly see the budget as the solution, and Trump as the savior of this great issue. 

According to macrotrends, the DoD budget has been growing at 5.44 percent a year for the past decade. The budget for 2024 was $842 billion. One would expect that with the added $158 billion, a greater expenditure would be seen to veteran’s quality of life. 

But the reality is different; a greater budget doesn’t see nor assume greater allocation. According to the Council of Foreign Affairs, Trump’s billion dollar budget increase reaches across the entire spectrum of DOD, but only less than 6% of the total affects veteran’s quality of life. To solve and fix most military problems like housing and health with such a budget would be an overstatement, and expecting or lauding his efforts would be bad. 

These changes happen on top of Trump’s repeated cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to AP news, he hopes to cut 80,000 jobs in the DVA, on top of the thousands that have already been cut on other platforms. Trump’s contradictory approach toward veterans and soldiers underscores a chaotic future for the “brightest and bravest our country has to offer.”