WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defense will cut $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.
Hegseth has said DOGE would have “broad access” to root out programs from the previous administration.
Last month, he ordered the termination of $580 million in spending, which included grants related to climate change and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) areas, among others.
In a video published 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 $5.1 billion in DOD contracts, not million,“ he said.
The cuts also include contracts for consulting services from private firms for the Defense Health Agency, as well as a cloud IT services contract.
The DoD is also pausing over $500 million in funding to Northwestern University and Cornell University, which Hegseth described as “academic institutions that tolerate anti-Semitism and support divisive DEI programs.”
The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion.
In February, a memo from Hegseth ordered the development of plans for eight percent 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 $560 billion by the end of the five years.
“We will move away from woke, Biden-era, non-lethal programs, and instead spend that money on President Trump’s America First, peace through strength, priorities,“ Hegseth said earlier this year.
